Tennis: Repeat offender Nalbandian battles bigger sanction

LONDON – David Nalbandian issued a second apology for his sensational disqualification from Queen’s Club as the fiery Argentine faced a possible lengthy ban in the aftermath of a second spectacular meltdown this year.

Argentina's David Nalbandian (left) checks on the line judge after causing an injury to him, for which he was disqualified during the Queen's Club grass court championships final tennis match against Croatia's Marin Cilic, London, Sunday, June 17, 2012. Nalbandian kicked the small barrier surrounding the line judge in anger. A piece of the barrier then hit the line judge, causing bleeding on his left shin. AP/Sang Tan

The 30-year-old was defaulted from the Queen’s final for angrily kicking an advertising board at a line judge, which left the official suffering a gashed and bloodied leg.

Nalbandian, who had won the first set 7-6 (7/3) against Croatia’s Marin Cilic, had just lost his serve to fall 4-3 down in the second when he reacted with a frustrated kick at the board, which was just in front of line judge Andrew McDougall.

A stunned and angry McDougall then rolled up his trousers to reveal a bloody gash on his leg before remonstrating with Nalbandian.

Nalbandian was immediately disqualified “due to unsportsmanike behavior” and Cilic was declared the champion.’

The Argentine was stripped of his runners-up cheque, worth 44,945 euros ($56,802), and 150 ATP ranking points, which he would have earned as a beaten finalist.

He could also be hit with a 10,000 euro ($12,638) fine, which will be decided by ATP chiefs at a later date.

But he could also face an eight-week ban having also been fined $8,000 for throwing water at an Australian Open tournament worker in January following a five-set defeat to America’s John Isner.

Having already apologized on court for his actions, Nalbandian issued a further statement through the ATP late Sunday in an effort to limit the damage just a week ahead of Wimbledon where he was runner-up 10 years ago.

“I never intended to hit him (the line judge), it was an unfortunate reaction in which I wanted to let off steam after losing a point,” he said.

“I had the opportunity to personally apologize to the line umpire for this regrettable act that I am fully responsible for.”

Although Nalbandian was contrite about the actual incident, he had also vented his frustrations at the ATP.

He claimed officials impose too many rules on players, including asking them to play in the kind of slippery conditions that have been commonplace over the last few days at Queen’s, a traditional warm-up event for Wimbledon.

Nalbandian risked getting in more trouble as he said: “Everybody makes mistakes, right? When somebody else does a mistake, they have to pay in the same way, but the players don’t feel that happens much, especially with ATP.”

“In the beginning of the year you have to sign that you agree with everything that the ATP says. And sometimes you don’t. And if you don’t want to sign, you cannot play ATP tournaments.”

“Sometimes the ATP put a lot of pressure on the players, and sometimes you get injured because you play on dangerous surface and nothing happens.”