Glenn Hunt/EPA, via Shutterstock
MELBOURNE, Australia — As the tennis world was transfixed on Andy Murray as he played what may have been the final match of his career last Monday night, another drama was beginning in Interview Room 2 at the Australian Open.
After a first-round loss, Australia’s Bernard Tomic launched the opening volley in an off-court rift between Lleyton Hewitt and some of the top male players in Australian tennis, a conflict that kept heads turning and eyes rolling throughout the tournament’s first week.
“I’m going to say it honestly: no one likes him anymore,” Tomic said of Hewitt, the country’s most successful men’s player in the past 20 years and the current Davis Cup captain.