Tennis Australia Apologises For Statement Saying Bernard Tomic Is Playing In ‘Hall Of Shame’ Championships, Tomics Threaten Legal Action

Tennis Australia (TA) has apologised for a press release saying that Australian No. 1 Bernard Tomic was taking part in the “Hall of Shame” instead of the Hall of Fame Championships. However, the threaten to sue TA despite the latter’s admission of guilt.

Matt Carmichael, who works as a sport journalist for 7News, shared a snap of the press release on Twitter. TA instantaneously retorted Carmichael’s tweet and wrote that it was a simply case of typographical error. TA further cleared the matter by posting an apology on its official website.

“Tennis Australia sincerely apologises for the typo in the daily results service today,” the statement read. “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.”

The statement said that the typo was made a “very upset staff member.” It said that they have no intentions to harm or shame Tomic, who unfortunately had lost his first round match 6-3 7-5 to 156^th-ranked Smith at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships.

Despite TA’s apology, the Tomics are reportedly going to seek legal advice over the matter. John Tomic said in a statement through Fairfax Media that they were upset by TA’s repeated mockery of his son. The elder Tomic said that his son had acknowledged TA’s decision to omit the 25^th-ranked player from Australia’s tie against Kazakhstan. He added that it was “childish and arrogant” on TA’s part to allow such press release to circulate.

Tomic was recently dumped from Australia’s Davis Cup team after he made uncouth remarks about Australian tennis’ governing body, which he claimed has neglected him when he went through an operation in 2014. He also made offensive criticisms about former Australian two-time grand slam champion Pat Rafter and TA’s Steve Healy and Craig Tiley.

The Hall of Fame Tennis Championships takes place at Rhode Island from July 11 to 19, 2015. Tomic lost to Smith, who will face World No. 166 American Jared Donaldson in the next round. In other matches, Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic defeated Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko 7-6 6-7 6-4. Tatsuma Ito of Japan moved on to the next round following his victory over American wild card Noah Rubin 6-3 6-7 6-4. Colombia’s Alejandro Falla also managed to come through and avoided the casualties list after beating Spain’s Adrian Menendez-Maceiras 6-1 7-5.

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