When tennis turns violent

I may or may not have picked this picture for the uber-cute ball girl...

I'm pretty sure I've never seen anything like this. In the final of the Queen's Club tournament, an important warm-up to next week's Wimbledon, world's #39 rank David Nalbandian pulled off a stunt that might prove costly, both professionally and legally.

When he failed to return an easy shot, Nalbandian kicked a line judge! Well, not exactly. He kicked a board on the side of the court, a board behind which -- like, two inches behind -- sat the baseline judge. A piece of wood splintered off the board and opened an inch-long gash in the old man's leg. The judge was visibly upset, as was the crowd. Minutes later, the chair umpire announced that Nalbandian was disqualified due to unsportsmanlike conduct. His opponent, Marin Cilic, was thus declared champion by default.

The twist is that someone (maybe the judge himself, maybe a crowd member) filed a complaint for assault, and now the London Metro police are investigating Nalbandian and the whole incident. Meanwhile, ATP has ruled that the Argentine will lose all of his prize money won at Queen's and may be fined. No word yet as to whether he will be allowed to play at Wimbledon next week... but even if he does, you can bet that the crowd won't have forgotten.

See the video here and read the report here.
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