Captain Pat Rafter will not select troubled Bernard Tomic for Australia's opening Davis Cup tie next year amid concerns over his on and off-court behaviour, Tennis Australia said on Thursday. Tomic, 20, has fallen foul of Tennis Australia several times over the past 18 months since reaching the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2011.
"As a team, we just felt that part of the commitment that we make to athletes and athletes make to the sport is they always put 100 percent commitment and effort in competing for their country," said Craig Tiley, Tennis Australia's director of tennis. "It's not one specific incident, just an aggregation of his approach to the game.
"We just felt that this decision should provide additional motivation every time he walks on the court to be a total professional in his approach to not only his preparation but competing in the match and post-match.
Rafter had been particularly scathing of Tomic's performance in losing to Andy Roddick in the second round of this year's US Open, describing his final set capitulation as "disgraceful". US tennis great John McEnroe said Tomic, currently ranked 52nd in the world, seemed to give up during his 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 loss to Roddick at Flushing Meadows. Tomic also admitted that he had given only "85 percent" in his 6-4, 6-0 defeat to German Florian Mayer at the Shanghai Masters in October, saying the pressures of the tennis tour were taking their toll. In the same month, he was questioned by police after a fight with a friend on Australia's Gold Coast.
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