Tomic Reluctantly Admits He Needs A New Coach

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 10th October 2013

Tomic Reluctantly Admits He Needs A New Coach

epa03868494 Australia?s Bernard Tomic celebrates after defeating Poland?s Lukasz Kubot in the fourth match to win the Davis Cup World Group playoff against Poland in Warsaw, Poland, 15 September 2013. EPA/BARTLOMIEJ ZBOROWSKI POLAND OUT |

After months of controversy in which the pugilistic John Tomic has been prosecuted in a Madrid court house and banned from the four Grand Slam tournaments and the ATP World Tour, his son Bernard has now reluctantly admitted it is time to search for a permanent new coach.

At this week’s Shanghai Rolex Masters, the sole person sitting in the seats reserved for Tomic Jr.’s support team was a physiotherapist on second assignment from Tennis Australia although his father had traveled to China with his son and was actually staying in the official players’ hotel.

So for the time being Tomic Sr. is still conducting his coaching duties off-site but all parties accept that is not perfect for his son’s advancement. So a family decision has been reluctantly reached and Bernard, aged 20 and ranked 51 in the world , will be on the lookout for a new coach to start next year.

Speaking in Shanghai after losing in the first round to Jeremy Chardy, Tomic Jr said: “For 2014 I’m looking for a coach who’s going to work with me, and a good team. Well, I’ve got no choice, do I?’ Obviously my Dad, he knows, and we’ve talked about it.

”He’s obviously going to be there as my Dad always, and it’s just difficult with the incident that happened this year [and prompted the ban] till next year, May, and I can’t afford to lose that five, six months. So I feel confident and in three or four weeks when I have time off and relax, obviously when that starts it will be very good for me.

”I’m talking to two different people now and we’ll see. I don’t want to start naming this guy and it doesn’t happen. You’ll know by at least November.”

Since the Madrid incident, Tomic has amassed a 9-12 record on the ATP World Tour, losing in the first round of all four Masters 1000 series events he’s contested while Wimbledon was the only tournament at which he won three matches in succession.

So his career has effectively been hampered since the May altercation that saw father John assault practice partner Bernard Drouet and receive an eight months suspended jail sentence in Madrid added to a one year tournament ban from the ATP.

Tomic Jr. countered: ”I wouldn’t say that much. I probably lost a good solid month from Madrid to about Roland Garros. But after that, I played pretty good at Wimbledon, was pretty confident there. Didn’t play so good in America, but I feel I played well the last two months.”

After a Davis Cup stand-off with Australian captain Patrick Rafter, Tomic has also played in the last two rounds against Uzbekistan and Poland, registering a 100% winning record in four singles rubbers.

He added: ”I played very good in Davis Cup so I wouldn’t say I lost that much, but I definitely lost a little bit in ups and downs throughout the year. It probably cost me 20, 30 spots at least in the rankings.”

Tomic next heads for Stockholm and will conclude his competitive year in Valencia, and finally Paris-Bercy. ”I’ve got a few things planned already for the start of 2014, which will be very interesting to see,” Tomic said.

”I’ve still got three more tournaments, so I’m going to finish these three weeks off strong, and from there have some time off and train with my new team, and hopefully 2014 will be a big year.”

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