19 Jun 2012

British police investigating tennis incident

6:40 am on 19 June 2012

British police are investigating a complaint of alleged assault against Argentina's David Nalbandian after a line judge was injured when the tennis player kicked a wooden advertising board.

The 30-year-old was defaulted from the Queen's Club final in west London yesterday for angrily kicking an advertising board at line judge Andrew McDougall which left the official suffering a gashed and bloodied leg.

Officials immediately disqualified Nalbandian due to unsportsmanlike behaviour and Cilic was declared the champion of the ATP grasscourt event, a warm-up for Wimbledon.

Nalbandian was stripped of his runners-up cheque and the ATP ranking points he would have earned as a beaten finalist as well as being fined 10,000 Euros ($NZ 15,900).

He could also face an eight-week ban having earlier been fined $A8,000 ($NZ 10,250) for throwing water at an Australian Open tournament worker in January following a five-set defeat by America's John Isner.