Thursday, December 11, 2008

Pull Your Head In, Bernard!

You know what makes me sad? When I hear bad things about Australia's great white hope, Bernard Tomic. The kid is good - ain't no one can deny that. But it sounds like he has a bit of an attitude problem.
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Scratch that. A lot of an attitude problem.
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He's been practicing with Mark Draper, who has commented on this - Bernard, it seems, often thinks he's too good for practice and such things, and is a bit... naughty, shall we say. Added to that the current controversy over his retirement a week or so ago, where his dad supposedly signalled to him to retire... dodgy, Bernard, dodgy.
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He is only sixteen. If he were a model of perfect behaviour, that would be seriously weird. Hell, look at Federer at sixteen - smashing racquets and bursting into tears all over the shop, and now look at him: the ice king god of tennis. Bernard is going to do some maturing, that's for sure - but I really, really hope it is not at the expense of his game. What he neglects now might come back to bite him...
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...of course, I am extremely ill-informed about the whole situation. Maybe there are extenuating circumstances. Maybe there are lots of things. But I would hate for Australia's next great tennis player, which is what Bernard Tomic is shaping up to be, to grow up and turn into Lleyton Hewitt - or, worse, Novak Djokovic. Now THAT would make me really sad.

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