Davis Cup captain Pat Rafter has revealed that he had a heated exchange with Bernard Tomic following the youngster's US Open debacle.

The teenager was livid with Rafter for describing his Flushing Meadows flop as "disgraceful" and they exchanged words before this week's tie against Germany in Hamburg.

"It was a big call at the US Open. I got into him," Rafter said.

"He got pissed off and gave it to me."

Rafter said the teenager had responded in the best possible fashion to the tough love by winning his opening singles rubber in testing conditions at Rothenbaum Stadium.

In cold, windy weather on a sluggish court, Tomic recovered from a set down to defeat Cedrik-Marcel Stebe on the Australian's worst surface.

"It is the best retaliation that he could have done," Rafter said.

"I was really happy for him and that was what we wanted from him.

"Hopefully he can go out there on day three and do the same sort of thing."

Rafter was proud of the way that Tomic had stuck to the job

"In the past he would probably look at the conditions and what was happening throughout the match and (you would ) think 'Hang on, is he going to hang tough here?.

"But he did and I am very proud of him."

A more contrite Tomic vowed to learn from his mistakes after grabbing the wrong headlines in New York.

He was accused of tanking by commentator John McEnroe late in his straight sets drubbing at the hands of Andy Roddick and Rafter savaged his effort.

Tomic then topped off his forgettable evening in the Big Apple with a childish display at his post-match press conference.

He had said he would not talk about his Flushing Meadows experience until after the Hamburg tie.

But after handing Australia a 1-0 lead, he broached the topic.

"I learn from my mistakes, it is good to learn," he said.

"When you are young, you get a lot of things thrown at you and this is all a learning curve.

"The last few months I have learnt a lot and one day when it is all together, it is going to be good for me and I am going to play good tennis."

The roof was shut following Tomic's match because of rain.

In the calmer conditions, a red-hot Florian Mayer levelled the tie at 1-1 by trouncing Lleyton Hewitt 7-5 6-3 6-2.

Rafter said there was little his old teammate could have done to stop the German No.1.

Mayer is due to meet Tomic in the opening rubber of the reverse singles on Sunday.