Bernard Tomic, Nick Kyrgios Warned To Improve Behavior For Olympics
Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic have been put on notice by Australia's chef de mission and have been warned that any misbehavior could see them not representing the country in the Olympics.
- Associated Press
- Updated: May 07, 2016 04:32 pm IST
Highlights
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Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios warned for misbehavior
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Australia's chef de mission has said all athletes under the microscope.
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Tomic's behavior was criticised during the Madrid Open.
Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios may have to improve their behavior on and off the tennis court if they hope to represent Australia at the Rio Olympics.
Both players have been put on notice by Australian chef de mission Kitty Chiller, who described Tomic's behavior at a tournament in Madrid this week as "appalling," after he deliberately gave up a match point - with the handle of his racket facing forward - and later said he didn't care because at the age of 23 he was already worth USD 10 million.
"It goes against every ... value that all the Olympians live by, it goes against everything that we've been trying to build in this team," she said. "I would not want to see any of our Olympic team members behave in that way."
Chiller said at the AOC's annual general meeting Saturday that "there's a few athletes that are on watch and those two names are among them."
"Every athlete is under the microscope now," Chiller added.
She also said the AOC had been watching the ongoing behavior of Kyrgios, who has regularly abused umpires, opponents and spectators.
Tennis Australia has until late June to nominate its team for Rio, with world No. 21 Kyrgios and No.22 Tomic the country's highest-ranked players and best chance for a medal.
But Chiller stressed that Tennis Australia can only nominate players of "good standing" within their sport, while the AOC has the final say.
"It's their responsibility to determine whether it's appropriate to nominate them," she said. "If any athlete from any sport is nominated, we look at everything ... including behavior, including the disrepute clause. We have the ability to take that into consideration whether we proceed to select the nomination or not."
"Based on the last 48 hours, all I can comment on is that is not behavior that I would want any team member in a team that I'm responsible for to exhibit."