TENNIS US OPEN 2014 – 29th of August 2014. An interview with Bernard Tomic
Q. Is it the flu?
BERNARD TOMIC: Not really. I mean, I was sick for the last 10 days. It was difficult having the flu, but my hip’s a little bit not in shape. I’m feeling it inside. So I did the best thing not to play. You know, I don’t want to muck around with that area. For sure something is there. I’ve got to get it checked. Got to get it analyzed the next few days. I’ve got to look into it and see what’s wrong, because I’m definitely feeling something in that area. For me, it’s not good right now. It’s painful.
Q. When did it flare up again? Was it during the first-round match?
BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah, it was in the first-round match in the doubles against Nick, as well. You know, I can’t afford to get on court and, you know, play against David and cause much more pain to myself, because, you know, I’m going to have to stay with him the whole match. For me right now I cannot do that. Who knows? I can potentially make it ten times worse. For me it’s the best thing not to go on court today. It’s a very difficult decision for me, but I have to do this, you know.
Q. How much is it to do with the hard courts, do you think?
BERNARD TOMIC: Well, I don’t know. That’s the thing. I’ve got to get it looked at. Good question, because I only started playing on hard court in Bogota after Wimbledon. That was my first sort of tournament on hard court from those two surgeries. I managed to win that. I have played a few good tournaments after that: Washington, Toronto, Cincinnati. Here I played pretty good in the first round. It’s just unfortunate that this is happening like this. But it’s tennis. It’s life. You’re going to get things like this.
Q. Bother you the whole year or just come on the last…
BERNARD TOMIC: Just the last few days since the first-round match. It’s just something that I don’t want to get on court with a player like David and have in the back and potentially cause a lot more problems to myself. I have to go get this checked now and see the next few days how it is, and, yeah, then decide what I have to do from there.
Q. How much of not wanting to go out there and maybe give it a go is knowing that David is a player you’re going to play a lot of long points against and not someone you can standstill and beat out there?
BERNARD TOMIC: Yeah. That’s what I had in the back of my head today. Good question. It’s something that I thought about a lot. But I needed to go out against David today and be 100% on my game. I was playing good the last month. Was playing very good tennis. But it’s unfortunate now. There is nothing I can do. I’ve got to look into it and see what this problem is. Hopefully I can arrange it and it can go away soon, yeah.
