Bernard Tomic has denied he was left out of Australia's Davis Cup team to play Chinese Taipei, saying he had a deal with captain Pat Rafter.
Tomic, who has had a horror second half of 2012 with his ranking dropping from 27 in June to 52 by the end of the season, said he had agreed with Rafter he would miss the February tie to prepare for ATP tournaments in the USA, while adding he will become 'the best player to one day play this game'.
Tennis Australia's director of tennis Craig Tiley said earlier on Thursday that Tomic had been left out of the Davis Cup squad due to a lack of commitment but the 20-year-old Queenslander denied that was the case.
"I was never meant to play that Davis Cup tie,'' Tomic told Channel 10.
"I spoke to Pat (about that).
"I'm going to use that time for training and to prepare for tournaments in America.''
While Tomic has received more negative headlines than positive this year with accusations of tanking being thrown at him as well as having gotten in trouble with the police in January, he remains convinced he can get to the top of the tennis world.
"I am working really hard and trying to push myself to become the best tennis player as I can be, and I've had a slippery slope the last year, and it's changing me," Tomic said.
"And I'll prove that I'm going to be the best player one day to play this game."
Chinese Taipei will host Australia in the Asia-Oceania first round from February 1 to 3.