Former Davis Cup captain John Newcombe is urging Aussie teenager Bernard Tomic to get in better shape and to begin working with new Davis Cup captain Patrick Rafter and coach Tony Roche.
''I'm not privy to enough inside knowledge, but what I hear is he doesn't do enough of the physical training on the running side, off the court, to get his body into that sort of shape,” Newcombe told the Age. “If he got himself into 100 percent physical shape, there's no reason why he couldn't be top 30, top 20. But we don't know yet what he can do, because we haven't seen it.''
The 18-year-old Tomic briefly made a splash at the 2010 Australian Open when he won a round and pushed Croatian Marin Cilic to five sets, but he’s done little since then and is currently ranked No. 218.
''Bernard, he really knows how to play the game, but I think he's probably only playing to about 60 percent of his potential,'' Newcombe said. ''For me, he's too cautious. He's not backing himself, and I think he's got the talent to be a hell of a lot better than he is at the moment. He can hit the ball hard, he's got pace, but he doesn't utilize it, and that's not going to cut the mustard. It'll win him some matches here and there, but there's not enough guns going on.''
Bernard’s controversial father, John, primarily coaches him. He played his last ATP tournament in September in Kuala Lumpur, losing to David Ferrer in straight sets.
“I think the ideal situation for Bernard and for Australian tennis would be if Bernard was to chuck his lot in with Pat and Tony and play Davis Cup, with Lleyton [Hewitt] around,” Newcombe said. “It's how Pat became what he became, through Davis Cup. Lleyton became No. 1 in the world, we chucked him into the Davis Cup at an early age, and it's just an unbelievable learning experience that you can't get anywhere else.”—Matthew Cronin