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Tennis Australia (TA) on Monday refused to comment on John Newcombe's stinging attack on the failure of TA to send Chris Guccione to be coached by Tony Roche.
Former Davis Cup captain Newcombe says left-hander Guccione, who has a world ranking of 91, should be a "lethal" player with his height and serve but he obviously lacks fitness.
Newcombe said he found it incomprehensible that TA player development director Craig Tiley had not directed Guccione, 22, to Roche.
Roche, a former Australian Davis Cup coach, has mentored world number 1-ranked players Roger Federer, Ivan Lendl and Patrick Rafter.
Asked today for a reaction to the story, TA spokesman Darren Pearce said: "You won't be getting one.
"Craig Tiley is in South Africa so you won't be getting any reaction until after Christmas," Pearce added.
"He'd be the one (to speak)."
Newcombe says Roche "understands better than anyone the work ethic required".
Newcombe said if Guccione spent two weeks with Roche, the master coach could discover "whether he's lazy or whether he's got it".
"If I was in charge of Chris, I would take him off the circuit for two months and I'd get the best athletic trainer I could find and teach him how to run and move and to build his stomach muscles and his leg muscles up so that he's got lateral movement," Newcombe said at the weekend.
"I just want to see the best possible thing done and I don't see the best possible thing being done in some very important circumstances."
