Speaking to the media really isn’t rocket science but young Australian Bernard Tomic is clearly struggling with it and is making some unwise choices when addressing people he will see countless times over the course of his career.
After losing badly to Richard Gasquet, Tomic was naturally asked about his father John, who last year was charged for assaulting his son’s ex-hitting partner and had been serving a one-year ban that ended last month.
Tomic stressed how important it was to have his father back and how he would resume his role as his main coach. He then decided to bite the head of a reporter for asking the following:
Reporter: Your dad had a court case to go through in his year off; he still has a civil case going. How confident are you that he can have the focus you need?
Tomic: That’s not a very relevant question because I don’t think about that. I didn’t even know. That’s a stupid question. Do I sit there thinking about those sort of questions? No, I don’t. That’s a stupid question. How can I answer that? That’s berserk.
Just to make things worse, Tomic decided to divulge that he doesn’t really like the French Open, saying: “Paris is a beautiful city, but I really don’t like this tournament. I’ve never played well.”
Way to win over your international fans, Bernie!
In a huge contrast to Tomic’s press conference, a bold and composed Caroline Wozniacki faced the media for the first time since Rory McIlroy announced he had broken off their engagement.
She calmly made a statement at the start of her press conference, asking us not to question her about her personal life and thanking everyone for their support.
“Obviously you’re not prepared for something like this, and it came a bit as a shock,” said Wozniacki. “I just tried to prepare the best that I could (for Roland Garros), and really tried to focus on my match.”
Annacone's phone bill
Meanwhile, Sloane Stephens revealed some struggles she and her new coach Paul Annacone (Federer and Sampras’ ex-coach) are having. And it’s definitely not what you’re thinking.
“He doesn’t know how to put on wifi or anything, so in Australia he had like a $2000 phone bill because he was on Twitter. He had his data roaming on instead of being on wifi. I’m like ‘Dude’. He’s sending Twitter pictures off his data. I’m like ‘that is not ideal’."
Santoro's networking
Over on Court Suzanne Lenglen, retired French player Fabrice Santoro (who does the on court interviews) offered Andy Murray his business card and asked to be put on the Scot’s coaching list.
Murray kissed the card and put it in his pocket. Seems unlikely he’ll use it though!
