Australia want Tomic back for Davis Cup

Davis Cup captain Wally Masur is confident tennis bad boy Bernard Tomic will return to the fold for Australia’s semi-final showdown in September.

Australia booked their spot in the last four with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Kazakhstan in Darwin.

Tomic was suspended for the tie after unleashing a verbal tirade against Tennis Australia following his Wimbledon exit.

In his absence, Australia slumped to a 2-0 deficit against lowly Kazakhstan, before Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Groth dug their country out of a hole with wins in the doubles and singles.

Tomic hit the headlines on the eve of the tie when he was arrested in Miami after failing to follow police orders to quieten down his penthouse party.

After being released on bail, Tomic declared he was still at war with TA, and wasn’t thinking about making a truce any time soon.

But Masur is doing his best to play the peacemaker role, with the tennis legend already contacting Tomic this week to make sure he is OK.

And with Australia set to face the might of France or Great Britain in the semi-finals, Masur wants Tomic back in the fold.

“I’d like to think that they are good,” Masur replied when asked about Tomic’s chances of rejoining the team.

“I would like to think that what occurred in England (at Wimbledon), everyone can just sit down and kind of work it out.

“At the end of the day, we are a pretty small fraternity of tennis players and I hate to think there is someone like a satellite operating individually.

“I would like to think that we are all in this together.

“He is a great Davis Cup player and I think it will be really healthy for him and great for us to get him back in the fold.”

Masur also needs to get the best out of Kyrgios if Australia are to be a genuine chance of reaching the Davis Cup final.

An emotionally-drained Kyrgios suffered a shock four-set loss to world No.115 Aleksandr Nedovyesov on Friday, before being replaced by Groth for Sunday’s reverse singles.

Masur said his decision to overlook Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis for Sunday’s crunch singles games wasn’t a sign of things to come.

“Make no mistake, Nick and Thanasi will be a massive part of Australian tennis going forward,” Masur said.

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