Tomic suspended from ITF circuit

Australia's big tennis hope - Bernard Tomic - has been fined $1560 and suspended from the ITF circuit for walking off court at the Perth challenger last December. The 16 year old's suspention will last until 6th of April.

The incident happened at the Sorrento Challenger, where Tomic's father, John, told his son to walk off the court as a sign of a protest against the umpiring. He thought that his son's opponent Marinko Matosevic was making countless foot faults and shouldn't get away with it. After some talk with the officials, he demanded, that Bernard should take the matters into his own hands and leave the court. The 16 year old did that and was automatically defaulted.

John Tomic was forced to apologize for making his son default the match. He told the press, that this incident has been the most humiliating expirience ni his life.

This apology has been taken into account and Tomic got away with a black eye, as he was threatened to be banned from the ITF circuit for life. This leaves the Junior Australian Open champion of 2008 with only ATP World Tour events, he can participate in, as his behaviour has been described as "major offences of aggravated behaviour".

It seems like Tennis Australia may be dealing with another Damir-like psycho-dad...

~jachal