POLICE ARE INVESTIGATING a complaint of alleged assault against Argentina’s David Nalbandian after a line judge was injured when the tennis player kicked an advertising hoarding yesterday.
The 30-year-old was defaulted from the Queen’s Club final in west London on Sunday for angrily kicking an advertising board at line judge Andrew McDougall which left the official suffering a gashed and bloodied leg.
Scotland Yard said today: “We are aware of an incident at the Aegon Championships on June 17. A complaint has been made and the Metropolitan Police Service is now investigating. The allegation is of assault.”
Nalbandian, who had won Sunday’s 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 McDougall.
A stunned and angry McDougall then rolled up his trousers to reveal a bloody gash on his leg before remonstrating with Nalbandian.
Officials immediately disqualified Nalbandian “due to unsportsmanike behaviour” and Cilic was declared the champion of the ATP grasscourt event, a warm-up for Wimbledon, now the only one of tennis’s four ‘Majors’ played on grass, which starts next week.
Nalbandian was stripped of his runners-up cheque, worth €44,945, and 150 ATP ranking points he would have earned as a beaten finalist. He could also be hit with a €10,000 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 by America’s John Isner.
Having already apologised on court for his actions, Nalbandian issued a further statement through the ATP late last night in an effort to limit the damage ahead of Wimbledon, where he was runner-up in the 2002 men’s singles final.
“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,” Nalbandian said. ”I had the opportunity to personally apologise to the line umpire for this regrettable act that I am fully responsible for.”
Although Nalbandian was contrite about the actual incident, he 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.
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.
“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.”
The line judge took a dive if you ask me. Should have been yellow-carded.
There’s hardly a need for a police investigation, it was stupid for sure but it was still purely accidental!
22 thumbs down…he kicked a board and i’m quite sure he didn’t intend to hurt that guy. Now if he smacked him over the head with his racket then i’d say there was a need for a police investigation…grow up.
Erm, actually, yeah, he did intend to hurt the guy.
Hmm methinks the Argentinian hasn’t heard the last of this one.
Have the police nothing better to do…isn’t he Argentinian?…I smell a dead cat here. The war is over I thought!!!
Isn’t it gas how a report on an incident in a tennis match in London can lead to comments referencing clerical child sex abuse, Mick Wallace and his VAT and the Falklands War?
Its a rich tapestry we’re weaving here folks!
That’s assault, plain and simple. It’s not assault because he kicked some metal right in front of the linesman’s feet which then hit the linesman?
That’s like saying Mick Wallace wasn’t responsible for not paying VAT to the Irish taxman because it was actually the fault of his company (of which he’s the sole director).
Thug. His “apology” has all the qualifications of a Pope Benedict “apology” for sexual and physical assault of children by Catholic priests and other ordained.
Your seriously comparing this to clerical abuse! Are you for real?
I wasn’t comparing it to clerical abuse. I was comparing Nalbandian’s mealy mouthed “apology” to Pope Benedict’s mealy mouthed “apology”.
I just find your example a bit disingenuous to those who suffered clerical abuse and are still awaiting a proper apology. There’s no comparison IMHO.
Eh..he didnt. Seen it in slow motion a few times and you can clearly see he was aiming for the advertising board. I hope you dont get called for jury service anytime soon.
Maybe if he kicked the advertising board a meter on either side of the linesman, I’d agree with you. But he kicked the advertising board which was just 10 centimeters in front of the linesman’s feet. It’s plainly assault.
It must be retaliation cause the Argies are looking for the Islands they claim we’re given them by the Spanish, back again