"Concerned" Australian Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt is awaiting with interest how Bernard Tomic shapes up on Tuesday in his opening match of the summer.
Overlooked by Hewitt for an Australian Open wildcard after snubbing last month's wildcard playoff and then withdrawing from the Brisbane International, Tomic will finally surface at the Kooyong Classic exhibition event.
The fallen star will play a best-of-three-sets Fast4 match against Yoshihito Nishioka as a pre-cursor to his appearance on Wednesday in Open qualifying.
Asked if he was pleased Tomic was attempting to qualify, Hewitt didn't appear overly convinced.
"Yeah. See how he goes. I haven't spoken to him. It's going to be interesting if he does play," Hewitt said on Monday.
"I heard that he's playing a match at Kooyong so I guess we'll see where he's at."
Once tight with Tomic, Hewitt remains frustrated that the former Wimbledon quarter-finalist opted to sit out Davis Cup last year during a dismal 2017 in which the world No.17 tumbled to well outside the grand slam cut-off mark.
The Cup captain said despite Tomic trying to qualify for his home slam, he was still worried about the direction in which the 25-year-old's career was heading.
"I'm concerned with where it's going right at the moment anyway," Hewitt said.
"He's 140 in the world and I think everybody knows that he's a lot better player than 140.
"So, at the end of the day, he's just got to commit to the sport and give himself 100 per cent chance every time he goes out to play or on the practice court."
The Open qualifying draw will be conducted on Tuesday, with Tomic needing to win three consecutive best-of-five-set matches to make the main draw at Melbourne Park for the ninth straight year.
He was Australia's last man standing last year, going out in the third round, and has reached the second week of the Open three times - 2012, 2015 and 2016.
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