Bernard Tomic’s young tennis career has been filled with almost as many misdemeanours as career wins. However, he’s had little to do with the latest Tomic controversy to make the headlines.

This time it’s his father, John Tomic, in hot water. He’s been charged with head-butting Bernard’s training partner, Thomas Drouet, in Madrid on Monday. Drouet has a broken nose and compounded vertebrae as a result.

Tomic said he was acting in self defence.

“I don’t feel guilty. I did not do anything wrong” says John Tomic of alleged headbutt | yhoo.it/12bU06Otwitter.com/Y7News/status/…

— 7NewsMelbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) May 7, 2013

Drouet has also alleged this is not the first time John Tomic has become violent, and he had even witnessed John raising a hand towards his own son.

After a court hearing on Tuesday, Tomic Sr. has been asked to stay away from all ATP tournaments. A second hearing has been set for May 14th.

Sadly, this isn’t an isolated incident in the tennis world. There seems to be an unfortunate trend of pushy parents who coach their children at an elite level.

In recent memory there are a number of examples.

Jelena Dokic’s father, Damir Dokic, had a string of offences against his name and was banned from coaching indefinitely by the WTA. In 2009 Jelena admitted that her father had even beaten her on several occasions after losing matches. Damir reacted by threatening to blow up the car of Australia’s ambassador to Serbia. He was arrested and spent nearly a year in prison.

In his autobiography Open, Andre Agassi stated that he actually hated tennis because of the pressure that his father, Emmanuel, put on him. It started when his father made him play a match for a wager when he was just nine years old, and continued throughout his career. Even after Agassi clinched his first major Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon in 1992, his father was disappointed his son had lost the fourth set.

There was also Jim Pierce, who coached his daughter Mary. Mary Pierce was a promising young tennis player who won 18 career titles. Her father made just as many headlines. Jim was known to hurl abuse at his daughters’ opponents, including infamously telling his daughter to “kill the bitch”. Mary later admitted her father had also beaten her.

“Dad would slap me after I lost a match, or sometimes if I had a bad practice,” she said, after finally dumping him as coach.

Aravane Rezai, Mirjana Iucic, and Jennifer Capriati – amongst others – also had parents that took tennis to an extreme.

Some of those parents seemed to be living vicariously through their children, seeing any on-court achievements as their own. For other parents, who were not afraid to exploit their children, their kids were a way to make a quick buck.

It’s important to remember that it’s not just professional athletes that have over-bearing parents – many youngsters have them too.

A three-decade-long observation by Bruce Brown and Rob Miller, two former coaches, found that in most cases a child’s worst memory of playing sport involved disappointing their parents.

Brown and Miller asked those same players what made them feel great after a game, and noticed a common response: their parents telling them, “I love watching you play.”

It must be noted that not all parents who coached their children have been failures. Nick Bollettieri, who coached Mary Pierce after her separation from her father, says there are numerous examples in tennis where parents have coached their children the right way.

 

It’s such a joy working with my dad, he’s a great coach. I had such a great practice! So exciting, now on to the gym…

— Venus Williams (@Venuseswilliams) December 19, 2009

“Grandma Connors and Mama Connors worked out tremendously”, Bollettieri says.

“The Williams’ have been a very happy relationship, and I also go back to Chris Evert’s father, Jimmy. He was terrific. And you look at the Changs, they had a beautiful relationship.

But in more cases than not, even if it does work, it takes away from the parents giving the other children in the family time and love and devotion as well.”

This may be the case for Sara Tomic, Bernard’s sister. Australia’s number one ranked 15-year-old isn’t coached by her father, even though John Tomic has labelled her his most talented child. Any ban handed down to Tomic would potentially apply to junior matches as well, meaning he wouldn’t be able to see either of his children compete at events.

Bernard Tomic must now follow his sister’s lead, and find a coach outside the family. A new mentor and a fresh start might finally take Tomic to the lofty heights predicted for him.

Paddy Naughtin is a third-year Bachelor of Journalism student, and a current upstart staff writer. You can follow him on Twitter: @PaddyNaughtin

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)