The United States beat Australia in a Davis Cup tie overshadowed by a bitter row between Bernard Tomic and absent team-mate Nick Kyrgios.
Kyrgios pulled out of the tie through illness, severely denting Australia’s hopes of victory, and in a 6-4 6-4 5-7 7-6 (7/4) loss to John Isner on Sunday, Tomic was caught on microphone accusing his compatriot of faking it.
The match in Kooyong, Melbourne, was broadcast on Channel 7 in Australia and Tomic’s on-court comments were reported by The Age.
He was quoted as saying: “Nick’s sitting down in Canberra. Bull**** he’s sick.”
The Queenslander was also quoted as saying it was “two times he done it, two times he faked it”.
At his press conference afterwards Tomic did not try to row back on the comments and said of next week’s Masters event: “If he plays Indian Wells, then he’s definitely lost a little bit of my respect.”
The two were previously good friends but Kyrgios hit back on Twitter by taunting Tomic about his infamous 28-minute loss to Jarkko Nieminen in Miami in 2014, the shortest completed match in ATP Tour history.
Kyrgios wrote: “Let’s not forget who holds the quickest loss on the ATP Tour lol. £howmanyminutesagain”
He deleted the post but then wrote: “Heat of the moment, not gonna take it personally. Indian wells a week away, plenty of time.
“Just don’t expect me to have your back any time soon.”
It was certainly not the Davis Cup captaincy debut that Lleyton Hewitt would have hoped for and he now has a job on his hands to pull his talented but hot-headed young team together again.
For the US, it was a first victory at World Group level for three years, with Isner serving 49 aces to earn Jim Courier’s side a 3-1 win.