Tomic’s family mulls legal action over ‘Hall of Shame’

By Mike Hytner in Sydney/theguardian.comThe father of Australian tennis star Bernard Tomic has said his family is considering taking legal action against Tennis Australia following an e-mail sent on Monday that stated the country’s top-ranked men’s player was to feature in the “Hall of Shame Tennis Championships”.John Tomic issued a statement through Fairfax Media which made clear his frustration at the latest instalment of the very public disintegration of the Tomic family’s relationship with the governing body.“The Tomic family is very disappointed by TA’s continual shaming and misrepresentation of Bernard,” John Tomic’s statement read. “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.”Tennis Australia was on Monday forced into issuing an apology for the typo in the email which should have said Tomic would be playing in the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships, taking place this week in the US city of Newport. A TA statement blamed the faux pas on a “simple clerical error”.Tomic is only playing at the tournament in Rhode Island after being dumped from the Australian Davis Cup team for his 10-minute tirade against TA officials following his exit from Wimbledon a week and a-half ago. He lost his first round encounter against fellow Australian John-Patrick Smith in straight sets 6-3, 7-5.Australia’s Davis Cup team is playing Kazakhstan in a World Group quarter-final this weekend.Smith sends tomic crashing

AFP/NewportAustralian John-Patrick Smith won his first ATP main draw victory on Monday, upsetting third-seeded countryman Bernard Tomic 6-3, 7-5 in the first round of the Hall of Fame Championships. Smith, ranked 156th, needed only 70 minutes to dispatch Tomic, taking 15 of 23 points off Tomic’s second serve and surrendering only one service break to the world number 25. Smith had been 0-5 in ATP matches after first-round losses this year to South African Kevin Anderson at Delray Beach and Frenchman Kenny De Schepper in five sets at Wimbledon. Next up for Smith will be 166th-ranked American Jared Donaldson, who beat 125-rated compatriot Austin Krajicek 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-2 in another opener on the grass courts outside the tennis legends honour hall where induction ceremonies will be staged on Saturday. Croatian second seed Ivo Karlovic blasted 11 aces and never faced a break point in battling past Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko 7-6 (7/4), 6-7 (6/8), 6-4. Karlovic took the only break of the match to advance after two hours and 23 minutes. Japan’s Tatsuma Ito outlasted US wildcard Noah Rubin 6-3, 6-7 (7/9), 6-4 to book  a second-round date with US seventh seed Steve Johnson, who downed Germany’s Michael Berrer 6-7 (6/8), 6-1, 6-2. Also moving on was Colombia’s Alejandro Falla, who ousted Spain’s Adrian Menendez-Maceiras 6-1, 7-5.