Frustrated and hampered by a wrist problem, Bernard Tomic launched a surprising attack on unwell Davis Cup teammate Nick Kyrgios, overheard saying "bulls*** he's sick" during his loss to John Isner.
Kyrgios withdrew from the first-round tie against the United States due to a virus, replaced by retired Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt in Melbourne.
And as Tomic struggled against >Isner, who won 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4) to lead the U.S. into the quarterfinals via a 3-1 victory, the 23-year-old accused his countryman of faking illness at the change of ends in the third set on Sunday.
"Nick's sitting down in Canberra. Bulls*** he's sick," Tomic could be overheard saying by the courtside microphones.
"Two times he's done it. Two times he's faked it," Tomic added, seemingly in reference to Kyrgios' withdrawal from Australia's World Group opener against Czech Republic last year.
Tomic managed to regain his composure afterwards, rallying to force a fourth set, having seen Isner save four set points in the third.
Isner, however, was not to be denied, setting up a quarterfinal against either Croatia or Belgium after firing down his 49th ace of the match.
Tomic was asked about his comments during the post-match news conference.
"It was just in the heat of the moment I said it," Tomic told reporters.
"Obviously I would have loved him to be here, but he is obviously sick like he says he is and for me, I think just now, it will be seeing if he actually plays Indian Wells because a similar situation happened last year where he didn't come to Czech and he had stress fractures and somehow played Indian Wells and felt good.
"So now it's going to be really funny for me to see the next two days whether he plays or not, which I think he will."
Tomic added: "I've spoken to him already. If he plays Indian Wells, then he's definitely lost a little bit of my respect."
"I'll be honest with you now, he told me he's playing Indian Wells. I came here, we all knew I had problems with my wrist. In a situation where it wasn't Davis Cup I would have pulled out, and not played today with the pain I was playing in. So in this situation I pushed through, I played, but I'm just going to be really, really interested if he does play (Indian Wells)."
"We finished [the conversation] pretty well, on good terms. But it's just weird. One of the questions I asked him was 'are you playing Indian Wells?', and he was like 'yeah, I should. I'm still sick but I'm gonna be better tomorrow'. It's just weird for me. I've said enough.
"At the end of the day it's just disappointing to not have him here. He's an amazing player and it would have been important to have him here," Tomic said.
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