Saturday 7 May 2016 09:23, UK
Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios could miss out on representing Australia at the Olympic Games in Rio if their behaviour on and off the tennis court does not improve.
Both players have been put on notice by Australian chef de mission Kitty Chiller after Tomic drew heavy criticism following his exit from the Madrid Open when, on match point against Fabio Fognini, he held the racquet by the strings and did not offer a return to the Italian's serve.
After the Australian Olympic Committee's AGM, Chiller said: "I think it was appalling behaviour. It goes against every value that all the Olympians live by, it goes against everything that we've been trying to build in this team.
"I would not want to see any of our Olympic team members behave in that way."
Chiller said both Tomic and Kyrgios, who has a history of verbally abusing opponents, umpires and fans, were just two of the potential Rio Games athletes who were being monitored for their behaviour.
"Every athlete is under the microscope now," she added. "There's a few athletes that are on watch and those two names are among them."
Tomic has been accused of 'tanking', or failing to try his best, in the past including in a loss to Andy Roddick at the 2012 US Open.
His 28-minute loss to Jarkko Nieminen in Miami in 2014 remains the quickest ever on the ATP Tour, while he was also involved in a spat with Davis Cup team-mate Kyrgios in March.
Tennis Australia has until late June to nominate its team for Rio, with world No 21 Kyrgios and Tomic the country's highest-ranked players and best chance for a medal.
But Chiller was keen to point out that Tennis Australia can only nominate players of "good standing" within their sport, while the AOC has the final say.
"It's their responsibility to determine whether it's appropriate to nominate them," she said. "If any athlete from any sport is nominated, we look at everything ... including behaviour, including the disrepute clause.
"We have the ability to take that into consideration whether we proceed to select the nomination or not.
"Based on the last 48 hours, all I can comment on is that is not behaviour that I would want any team member in a team that I'm responsible for to exhibit."
