Lawyers representing a British tennis player yesterday began libel proceedings against three media organisations following the publication of stories claiming that the 21-year-old was the world's worst professional in his sport.

Libel writs have been lodged at London's high court against Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers, news agency Reuters and Independent News and Media, owner of the Independent titles.

The libel claim focuses on a series of articles that appeared in the British press including the Daily Mail, the London Evening Standard and the Independent on Sunday from April 22 onwards.

These articles alleged that Robert Dee had lost 54 consecutive professional matches, making him the world's worst player. British-born Dee, who works full time as a tennis professional at La Manga in Spain, has denied the claim.

According to his spokesman, Dee said that while he has lost 54 consecutive International Tennis Federation matches he also won 20 other professional matches in that time.

The Guardian, which reported in April that he had not won a professional game in three years, published a correction and apology on May 23 accepting that this was not true. The paper was not named in yesterday's writ.

David Engel, of law firm Addleshaw Goddard, which represents Dee, said: "These articles were wrong and extremely damaging to our client's professional reputation as a tennis professional who earns his living from the game.

"The continued refusal by a number of media organisations to accede to our client's request for printed apologies has left Mr Dee with no option but to sue for libel."

I read about him. :D

Well if ti isn't true good luck to him in sueing, not fair to have his reputation damaged like that.

apparently his defence is that he's only the second worst player, so yeah, he has a reputation to defend ;)

Oh really? roflmao

Meanwhile, in the light of this new evidence on Dee's hugely encouraging results, the LTA are set to award him with a wild card for Wimbledon...








;)

:lol:

Maybe they should, they have hardly favoured the Brits this year. :D

To be fair claiming he is the worlds worst player is a bit silly...

First off he's a professional so he plays to futures and satellite level I guess, so he would beat me 6-0 6-0 down the local park I have no doubts about that lol.

I'm sure if I played against people in futures or satellite level i'd never win a match so it's a good job I'm not turning pro :P

Perhaps you could call him the world's worst would-be touring professional with some justification - but that ain't gonna make a decent headline.

As with so many headlines the instant reaction to this claim is, "goodness, how trivial" - and ultimately that may be the result of his claim.

However, you don't need an enormous amount of empathy to realise that being called very prominently the world's worst at a profession in which you earn your living might not be very welcome.

I doubt that his damages would be very high even if he wins so the papers may tough this one out. It will be interesting to see what happens.

:lol:

One thing we do know is tat the newspaper industry in this country are out of control - this is just a manifestation of that.