Pat Rafter reveals sad truth about his Davis Cup captain stint
Pat Rafter has responded to Bernard Tomic’s television interview on Sunday night, expressing a number of regrets about his dealing with Tomic during his four-year stint as Davis Cup captain.
Rafter spoke to KIIS FM on radio on Monday in response to Tomic’s Channel Seven Sunday Night interview, where Tomic called the to-time US Open winner “not that much of a nice guy” and said he likes to “put on a show”.
Thought Rafter did not apologise, the Aussie tennis champ said he felt he could have handled Tomic better during his time as Davis Cup captain and then head of performance.
"One of the things I said publicly was that he was pretty disgraceful out there," Rafter said.
Rafter made those comments after a US Open match Tomic played against Andy Roddick in 2012 where he appeared to tank in the third set.
"Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Maybe it should have been said between him and me."
Rafter also agreed with Tomic’s assessment that he acts differently depending on who he’s with.
“He’s not entirely wrong, at the end of the day we do wear different hats for different occasions,” Rafter says. “I do put on different faces for different occasions.
“I don’t want to bash up on Bernie. He’s got a point and he’s got a voice and he can say what he wants to say. We have had run-ins, we see life a little bit differently.”
Of his time as Davis Cup captain, Rafter said he went in believing he could quickly make an impact when he first started dealing with a then 18-year-old Tomic.
"… I thought at the time I could make some change but I found out pretty quickly I couldn't impact that," Rafter said.
"We see life a bit differently.
"So we are going to have disagreements and I was pretty vocal in that and he was pretty hurt by it."
After four years as Davis Cup captain, Rafter quit a year earlier than expected and moved onto the head of performance at Tennis Australia. He admitted that he had a lot of difficulty handling the young Australian players.
"I realised I had no impact with these guys whatsoever. They couldn't relate to me and I couldn't relate to them," he said.
"It wasn't enjoyable," he said of the Davis Cup stint.
"I reckon I had one or two enjoyable ties out of the four years I did it for. It was just hard work and banging my head against the wall all the time."
Rafter says while he doesn’t hold any ill will toward Tomic, he hasn’t spoken to him in a year and has no plans to get in touch.