Bernard Tomic - Controversies

Controversies

In 2007, Tomic's funding from Tennis Australia was cut due to a lack of effort during a juniors match at the 2007 French Open. Tomic subsequently missed the Wimbledon juniors tournament.

In 2009, the International Tennis Federation suspended Tomic from playing ITF professional tournaments for a month after he walked off court in a game against Marinko Matosevic in a Perth Futures tournament in December 2008. Tomic was ordered to walk off the court by his father, who repeatedly accused officials of not taking action against Matosevic's alleged foot faults.

In September 2009, reports began to surface about Tomic's team rejecting an invitational practice session with Lleyton Hewitt during the middle Sunday of Wimbledon. Hewitt's manager David Drysdale stated:

We turned up and saw the Tomics around and we thought 'oh, maybe they got our message, and they were there to hit with Lleyton'. So Ivan (Gutierrez, Hewitt's physio) went over to Bernard's trainer at the time, Rudy (Sopko) and said 'Is Bernard here to hit?'. Rudy knew nothing of it but said 'Look, Bernard's looking for a practice partner and I think Bernard would like to do it', but then the agent came in and said, 'No, he's not hitting with Lleyton, Lleyton's not good enough'. They were his words: 'Lleyton's not good enough' and we just about dropped on the spot. We were pretty dumbfounded. Lleyton just could not believe it, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he got about it."

Tomic's team cited Hewitt's different playing style as the reason for turning down the practice offer. He was later seen requesting for a practice hit with former World Number 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero, but was subsequently turned down. A few weeks later Tomic revealed that he was forced to turn away the opportunity due to his own infection with swine flu. He further denied any approach to Ferrero as an alternative hitting partner, despite the Spanish tennis player's claim.

In January 2010 The Australian newspaper reported that Tomic's father had threatened to quit Australia and have him play for Croatia. According to the paper, this threat was made during a heated argument between Tomic's father and the Australian Open Tournament Director, Craig Tiley, after Tomic's loss to Marin Čilić.

While competing at the 2012 Miami Masters Tomic was overheard making a request to the chair umpire for his father to be ejected from the stands. He was heard saying "He's annoying. I know he's my father but he's annoying me. I want him to leave but how's that possible?".

At the 2012 US Open he lost to Andy Roddick in the second round 6-3, 6-4, 6-0. During the match tennis great John McEnroe, who was commentating the match, accused Tomic of tanking. During a post match press conference, after being questioned about his effort, Tomic lashed out at Australian journalist Will Swanton, stating "That's how I play. Do you have a problem with that?". Tomic then asked for the journalists name and warned him, declaring "I'll remember ya".

In January 2012 he was fined by the police on the Gold Coast three times in one day. Later that day he also ran from the police and locked himself in his house. In November 2012 Tomic pleaded guilty in court for failing to stop for police and was fined $750 as well as being put on a 12-month good behaviour bond. He was also found guilty for a three other traffic offenses committed in January and was fined a further $1000. Just a week prior to the court case Tomic was found fighting with a friend on a penthouse balcony at 5:30am in Surfers Paradise during his 20th birthday celebrations.

In December 2012 it was announced by Tennis Australia that Tomic would not be selected for Australia's first Davis Cup tie in early 2013 and they would cut his funding. The decision came just days after Tomic was spotted driving a $300,000 yellow Ferrari around the Gold Coast streets.