Tomics seek legal advice over Tennis Australia email
John Tomic says his family is receiving legal advice after Tennis Australia (TA) distributed an email which stated his son Bernard was playing in the “Hall of Shame Tennis Championships”.
Fairfax reported that Tomic Snr emailed the newspaper a statement expressing his extreme disappointment over the latest controversy engulfing tennis in Australia.
“The Tomic family is very disappointed by TA’s continual shaming and misrepresentation of Bernard,” John Tomic’s statement, published by Fairfax, read.
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“Bernard has already been punished by his non-selection for the upcoming Davis Cup tie.
“Bernard accepted his sanction in a professional manner and was willing to move on … how typically childish and arrogant of TA to permit publication of such material and then expect to get away with it.
“We have no alternative but to refer the matter to our legal people for advice.”
An embarrassed TA quickly apologised for what it described as a “typo” in its initial email which was supposed to read that Bernard Tomic was playing fellow Australian John-Patrick Smith at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in the US.
After the original email went out just before 10.30am on Monday, TA sent a revised version of the fixtures with the correct tournament name.
“Sincere apologies for typo in our results service today, has now been corrected. Good luck to both #Tomic & #JPSmith,” Tennis Australia tweeted.
TA then followed up with an explanation which described the blunder as a “simple clerical error”.
“Tennis Australia sincerely apologises for the typo in the daily results service today,” it said in a statement.
“This has now been corrected and we wish both Bernard Tomic and JP Smith all the best in the Hall of Fame Championships in Newport.
Tomic is only competing in the US tournament because he was kicked out of Australia’s Davis Cup squad over his “unacceptable” criticism of TA officials including Pat Rafter and CEO Craig Tiley following his third-round Wimbledon exit.
Among other claims during his 10-minute tirade, Tomic accused the governing body of abandoning him after he underwent double hip surgery last year and that Rafter, TA’s director of player performance, was merely a “mask” for Tiley and had no idea how to control the budget for player funding.
TA president Steve Healy said the allegations were “misinformed and untrue”.
Fellow Australian Nick Kyrgios has also had recent issues with TA, the 2014 Wimbledon quarter-finalist taking aim after Rafter had made comments that Australia needed players it “can be proud of”.
“Another negative comment out of Rafters mouth,” Kyrgios tweeted. “Does this guy ever stop? #everyoneisaworkinprogress.”
The tweet was quickly removed.