Britain’s Daily Telegraph reports that it has won a lawsuit filed against the paper by British player Robert Dee, in which the Daily Telegraph and numerous other publications once described Dee as the “worst professional tennis player in the world.”
Dee, who lost a record-setting 54 consecutive matches on the Futures circuit, took legal action against dozens of newspapers and websites to defend his reputation. He has reportedly won thousands of pounds in settlements.
Instead of settling, the Daily Telegraph challenged the suit, and a High Court ruled: “The incontestably true facts are that the Claimant [Robert Dee] did lose 54 matches in a row in straight sets in his first three years on the world ranking ITF/ATP tournaments on the international professional tennis circuit, and that this was the worst ever run…There was no additional obligation on the paper to prove that Dee is objectively the worst professional tennis player in the world, in terms of his playing skills…it was simply a consequence of his unprecedented record of defeats.”—M.C.