'Hall of Shame' gaffe fans Australia tensions with Tomic

Tennis Australia apologised on Monday for an embarrassing gaffe that could further inflame tensions with estranged player Bernard Tomic.

Tennis Australia (TA) emailed out a press release which said Tomic was due to play an upcoming match at the "Hall of Shame Tennis Championships" in the United States, instead of the "Hall of Fame Tennis Championships."

The slip-up may further exacerbate the feud between the organisation and Tomic, although TA quickly issued an apology after it was highlighted on social media.

"Tennis Australia sincerely apologises for the typo in the daily results service today. 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," it 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."

TA explained a possible reason for the embarrassing error.

"The result listing before the Hall of Fame Championships, the Sharm El Sheikh event in Egypt, won by Astra Sharma, should provide some explanation as to how this error occurred. There was no malicious intent," it said.

Tomic created headlines when he lashed out at TA and tennis official Pat Rafter at a post-match Wimbledon news conference this month, accusing the governing body of penny-pinching and claiming he had been charged for practising on their courts in Brisbane this year.

He also insulted former Davis Cup captain Rafter, one of the country's sporting icons.

The 22-year-old was dumped from the Australian team for this week's Davis Cup tie against Kazakhstan in Darwin for what TA called "disparaging and disrespectful comments."

The press release typo comes after Rafter Sunday described the feud with Tomic as deep and possibly irreconcilable.

"It's about opportunity, not entitlement," Rafter said, in remarks that prompted an angry response from compatriot and Tomic friend Nick Kyrgios, in a further fracturing of the Davis Cup team's cohesion ahead of this week's tie.

"Another negative comment out of Rafters mouth. Does this guy ever stop? #everyoneisaworkinprogress," Kyrgios tweeted. The tweet has since been deleted.
Source: AFP