Bad boy Nalbandian keeps tantrums in check - but in vain
Bad boy Nalbandian keeps tantrums in check - but in vain
Fiery Argentine David Nalbandian let his tennis, not
his temper do the talking at Wimbledon on Monday - but it was to no
avail for the new villain in the tennis hall of infamy.
Nalbandian, who was disqualified from the Queen's Club
final eight days ago for injuring a line judge, folded 6-4 7-6 6-2
against Serbian eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic in the first round at
Wimbledon.
The Argentine, who reached the Wimbledon final at his
first attempt 10 years ago, had a brief spat with the umpire over a
disputed line call when trying to break back in the second set against
Tipsarevic. But the fireworks were a damp squib compared to his fury at
Queen's.
In fact his only argument of the day fired Nalbandian into drawing level, only to lose the tiebreak and slump two sets down.
At Queen's, he slammed his foot into an advertising
board which disintegrated and cut a gash in linesman Andrew McDougall's
leg. Nalbandian was fined the maximum of 10,000 euros ($12,600) by the
governing body of men's tennis and forfeited prize money of at least
$56,800.
The linesman were safe at Wimbledon - no advertising
hoardings are allowed on the hallowed turf of this tennis temple. They
even felt relaxed enough to take off their blue blazers and officiate in
shirt sleeves.
The Argentine has long had a reputation as a tennis
firebrand. Ten years ago he was thrown out of a tournament in Chile for
hurling a torrent of verbal abuse at a linesman.
Back as a junior in 1999, he was defaulted at Wimbledon
in the semi-finals of the boys singles after arriving late for his
match.
On Monday, there was no trouble with the time keeping.
He and Tipsarevic arrived on a sun-kissed Court One to warm applause
from the crowd.
He even earned cries of "Come on David" when battling
hard to combat the superior firepower of Tipsarevic but Nalbandian's
game simply failed catch fire.
