The father of Australia's top-ranked tennis player, Bernard Tomic, was charged with injuring his son's training partner with a head butt.

Ivica Tomic, who is better known as John, denied the charge, according to a statement released by a spokesman for Madrid’s criminal courts. A hearing scheduled for yesterday was postponed to May 14.

Both the younger and elder Tomic declined to comment further on the case, the player’s agent, Brian Cooney, said in an e-mail yesterday.

The training partner, Thomas Drouet of France, sustained a broken nose in a street in downtown Madrid three days ago, Spanish police said. The elder Tomic was arrested at a nearby hotel, the police said.

Tomic lost 6-3, 6-2 to Radek Stepanek in the first round of the Madrid Masters clay-court tournament.