Bernard Tomic regrets making "$10million" comment

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  • Bernie cares: Tomic is into the French Open second round.

    Bernard Tomic has backtracked from his comment about not caring about tennis because he’s “23 and worth $10million” and insists he does indeed care about the sport.

    Nicknamed ‘Tomic the Tank Engine’ by Australian media, the world No22 has been accused multiple times of not trying hard enough during matches, with his most recent offence coming in a straight-sets loss to Fabio Fognini in Madrid in which he held the racquet by the head and swung the handle at the ball while returning, down match point.

    He later told the media: “I don’t care about that match point. Would you care if you were 23 and worth over $10million?”

    Prompted to elaborate on those comments on Tuesday, after easing past Brian Baker 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to set up a French Open second round against Borna Coric, Tomic said with a laugh: “I would love to say I have 10 million US, but maybe 10 million Australian.

    “Yeah, I shouldn’t have said that, but that’s in the past. That was my fault. You got me there.

    “I was just in that moment. I just said that and I was talking to my friends about some things, so it just sort of came out ‘I don’t really care’.”

    He added sarcastically: “Maybe if I had 100 (million) that’s different.”

    Asked if he actually cares, the Aussie responded: “Oh, yeah, of course. We all care. Do you care? Everyone cares. You have to make what you can. It’s like a job, so of course I look at as a chance.

    “Yeah, sometimes I have my own way. For sure I have to be strong and compete. I’m at the best tournament in the world. All those things aside, I just focus on my goal here and to try to win as many matches as I can.”

    Tomic acknowledged that he does have a certain reputation of not trying his hardest and he confessed that he needs to get tougher mentally.

    “I think I have to learn to deal with it more and compete. I struggle mentally a lot, so that’s one area I need to improve,” said the 23-year-old.

    “I have improved that a lot, especially in the years after my surgeries, coming back from where I was to reaching my career-high last year, this year, 16, 17.

    “So I was one year ago, one and a half years ago 130 in the world. So for me, it’s been a big turnaround the last sort of 16 months. I have to get better. You’re not going to get to top-five, top-three in the world or 10 if you have all the time some distractions and stuff. Everyone knows I have a lot talent.

    “Me, I don’t need to train much to be where I am, 30, 20 in the world. I always have the talent. If I want to get more in my career and life, I have to be 100 per cent in everything. You have to give 100 per cent all the time and compete all year. That’s been one of the things I’ve probably been struggling prior to this year, the past three, four years before that.”

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