20 January,2019 09:00 AM IST | | AFP
In this file photograph taken on March 4, 2016, Australias team captain Lleyton Hewitt (R) encourages compatriot Bernard Tomic (L) between games against Jack Sock of the US during their mens singles match at the World Group first round Davis Cup tennis t
Bernard Tomic has called Lleyton Hewitt a "liar" after the Australian Davis Cup captain claimed he had been blackmailed and physically threatened by the firebrand, whose father Saturday said he planned legal action against the veteran.
The explosive allegations on Thursday by Hewitt followed an ugly war of words in which Tomic claimed the two-time Grand Slam champion had ruined the national system and "no one likes him any more".
Hewitt responded by calling Tomic "a clown", while alleging he attempted to blackmail him by demanding wildcards and threatening to refuse to play Davis Cup. He also said he and his family had been physically threatened. "I think the threats that I have received for me and my family, that I-ve had for a year-and-a-half now, I don-t think anyone would reach out to a person that speaks like that," said Hewitt, with their relationship in tatters.
Tomic told the Herald Sun newspaper late Friday: "I have never threatened his family. "Nice, Lleyton. To think how low of a person you actually are. It-s why the Australian public never liked you.
"I got nothing to do with your family and I don-t care what-s wrong with you, you liar." On Saturday, his father John Tomic said he planned legal action against Hewitt over an incident he claimed occurred in 2010 when his son was a Davis Cup debutant.
At the time Bernard was 17 and he alleged the teenager was left traumatised. John Hewitt claimed to the Sydney Morning Herald that Hewitt came to his son-s hotel room during an Australian tie against Taiwan in March 2010 and pressured him to inform who from Tennis Australia was telling him what to say publicly. Hewitt, who was not playing after hip surgery, had at the time been highly critical of TA during a period of turmoil for the sport-s governing body.
"He tried to force him to say something," Tomic senior told the newspaper. "Bernard was shocked, he couldn-t sleep all night. "How can you come in the room and threaten him and say you won-t play Davis Cup and say you won-t be close to me if you don-t tell me who from Tennis Australia is telling you what to say?" He told the newspaper he would take legal action against Hewitt next week.
"We will prove that Bernard has trauma from 2010 when Bernard was the youngest player in Davis Cup for Australia," he said. "They will try to protect him but we will find the truth in the court."
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