Australian hard-court season is time to feel the Bern.
Bernard Tomic sniped at two of his favorite targets—Tennis Australia and Nick Kyrgios—ahead of facing his former Davis Cup teammate and sometime sparring partner in a Kooyong exhibition match.
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Tomic questioned if Kyrgios will put in enough effort into the exo to even make it worthwhile.
"Am I doing that (getting legitimate match play against Nick, who only just serves? It's tough to do," Tomic told The Sydney Morning Herald. "Hopefully he takes it seriously."
Tomic's comments came a day after the 51st-ranked Kyrgios said the pair had repaired their strained relationship.
"We're fine. I don't have any bad blood with him at all," Kyrgios told the media following his Fast4 victory over Rafael Nadal. "It's another chance to get some preparation before the Oz Open.
"Obviously I was pretty excited when I got drawn against him—we're good mates so to get out there, I know what he's going to bring, it's going to be fun. It's going to be laid back so, yeah, it's perfect preparation for me."
Tomic ripped Tennis Australia for adopting the Dunlop ball at the Australian Open and all tune-up tournaments leading up to Melbourne. While some players have praised the move as providing a consistent ball leading into the year's first Grand Slam, Tomic blasted the TA's move from Wilson balls to Dunlop balls as "pretty cheap."
"These balls are terrible... I don’t know what the Australian Open's done," Tomic said. "I don't know too much… I think they're pretty cheap."
The critical comments come 11 months after Tomic went nuclear on Tennis Australia comparing it to corruption in FIFA and threatening to expose "issues" in the TA.
The feud between the former Davis Cup teammates dates back to March of 2016 when Tomic accused Kyrgios of "faking" illness to avoid playing in Australia's Davis Cup defeat to the United States.
That exchange was broadcast on television and posted online later by The Age.
After Tomic’s loss. Kyrgios himself took to Twitter to lash back at Tomic’s claims.
Photo credit: Tennis Australia