Lleyton Hewitt Blasted by Bernard Tomic at the Australian Open 2019

Published 01/15/2019, 7:21 AM EST

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After his first-round loss to Marin Cilic at the Australian Open 2019, Bernard Tomic laced into the former Australian legend, Lleyton Hewitt on his way out. Tomic returned to the Melbourne courts after a year, failing to qualify for his home Grand Slam the year before. He is ranked 88th in the world and never got into the top 15 ATP rankings. Additionally, has never made the semi-final of a Grand Slam.

Hewitt has “laughed it off”, and he said referring to Tomic “Bernie being Bernie.” The 26-year-old Aussie indicted him for the Davis Cup captain, Hewitt for splitting Australia’s playing ranks and he added that Hewitt has been encouraging those players with whom he has management contacts for personal monetary earning. The 37-year-old Hewitt has won two Grand Slam titles and in the year 2001, he became the youngest ever player to secure the World Number one ranking.

Tomic wants the Australian tennis team should have a new captain now and he mentioned, “I played Davis Cup for 10 years. I think I played at the youngest age of Australian history when I was 15. Lleyton’s legacy and his tennis speak for itself. He’s an unbelievable champion. But what he’s doing now is wrong. I hope he gets moved and we can go back to having a good captain.”

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“No one likes him any more,” Tomic referred to Hewitt. “We have a lot of issues that not a lot of players are happy about. We all know who those players are. Myself, [Thanasi] Kokkinakis, [Nick] Kyrgios.” Since the time Kokkinakis defeated Roger Federer last year at Miami, the Aussie has been razed with injuries. In his today’s opening round match at Australian Open 2019, he retired against Japan’s Taro Daniel due to a shoulder problem. Kokkinakis has been pulled into the issue of the Australian tennis dispute with Tomic asserting him to be quarrelling with Hewitt over perceived favouritism.

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The retired Australian professional tennis player, Pat Cash also expressed his thoughts regarding this argument. “I think it’s certainly worth investigating,” Cash addressed. “It’s something that has happened before.” 

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Mahalakshmi Murali

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Mahalakshmi Murali joined EssentiallySports in 2018 as a tennis author and has gone on to pen more than 1800 engaging articles, probing into various aspects of the sport and its illustrious players. With her expertise on the sport, Mahalakshmi has interviewed stalwarts from the sport such as Serena WIlliams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou and Kevin Anderson’s physio, Carlos Costa. Equipped with her vast experience and a keen understanding of the sport, Mahalakshmi now co-heads the tennis department.
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