MELBOURNE — Tennis Australia has apologized for a ‘clerical error' in a media release that said estranged local player Bernard Tomic was playing in a ‘Hall of Shame' event against compatriot John-Patrick Smith. The media release said Tomic, who was dumped from Australia's Davis Cup team after a rant against officials, was playing Smith in the ‘Hall of Shame Tennis Championships', causing a stir on social media networks. “Tennis Australia sincerely apologizes for the typo in the daily results service today,” the governing body 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,” TA said in a statement.
“This unfortunate error has been widely circulated on social media and there is some discussion as to how such a mistake could occur. “We have a very upset staff member who made a simple clerical error. “There was no malicious intent.”
TA's relationship with Australia's top-ranked player Tomic has long been frosty but it reached a new low at Wimbledon where the world No. 26 accused officials of lacking respect for him and failing to support he and his sister Sara, who plays mostly lower-tier ITF events.
Tomic also teed off at two-time grand slam champion Pat Rafter, a former Davis Cup captain and now TA's high performance director, describing him as a “good actor” and a TA stooge.
Australia is due to play a Davis Cup quarterfinal against Kazakhstan this week but the leadup has been plagued by in-fighting and further controversy surrounding hot-headed talent Nick Kyrgios.
World No. 29 Kyrgios bowed out of Wimbledon in a hail of criticism for his on-court histrionics, with accusations of poor sportsmanship throughout the tournament and ‘tanking', or not trying, during his fourth-round match against Frenchman Richard Gasquet.
Rafter added fuel to the fire over the weekend by telling a local newspaper that TA was focusing on developing players the country could be ‘proud of'. He also suggested the rift between TA and Tomic might never heal. — Reuters
