A frustrated Lleyton Hewitt will appeal the two-week ban and $30,000 fine he was slapped with this week after being found guilty of \u201coffensive conduct\u201d for shoving a 60-year-old anti-doping chaperone following Australia\u2019s Davis Cup semi-final defeat to Italy last year.<\/p>\n
The incident happened in a crowded corridor in Malaga, with an independent tribunal issuing its punishment just days ahead of Australia\u2019s Davis Cup tie with Belgium this weekend in Sydney.<\/p>\n
The ban will come into place on September 24 and lasts until October 7, allowing the 44-year-old to captain Australia this weekend, and Hewitt was in no mood to talk about the ban and fine when speaking to the media on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just really disappointed about the overall decision but also the whole process to be honest, and the lack of facts that have been put out,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ll be going to the appeal process with my legal team, so I won\u2019t be talking about it any further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Details around the incident itself remain sketchy, and Hewitt wouldn\u2019t shed any light on what actually happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, it\u2019s with my legal team, so they\u2019ll be going through that, and I won\u2019t be making any more comments,\u201d he said, before hitting out at the timing of the decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnlike the ITIA (International Tennis Integrity Agency) and the ITFO, I won\u2019t be making it a distraction for the Davis Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis competition means too much.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, the chance to come back after three years away and play on home soil in Australia, there are so many kids here who will get the opportunity to see their role models up close \u2013 especially Alex (de Minaur) \u2013 a top 10 player, playing on his favourite court here in front of his crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s too many great stories and positives to take away from this weekend and what we\u2019re trying to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think deep down it will make the boys even stronger to go out there and get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hewitt was blunt when asked whether he considered stepping down this weekend in light of the ban.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The ITIA had initially pushed for a harsher sentence of four weeks and a $37,500 fine considering Hewitt\u2019s \u201cpoor disciplinary record, including five prior incidents of offensive conduct towards tennis officials and non-compliance with tennis rules.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ITIA also claimed Hewitt showed \u201ca lack of remorse\u201d and \u201cthere was no apology or check on the wellbeing of the chaperone,\u201d who says he will never volunteer at another event again.<\/p>\n
Hewitt attempted to claim self-defence at the tribunal, but the tribunal ruled his conduct was \u201cnot reasonable and proportionate\u201d after encountering the chaperone in a crowded hallway.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Hewitt will make three changes to the Australian side, with Alexei Popyrin and Matt Ebden both out injured, allowing John Peers, Aleksandar Vukic and Rinky Hijikata to join the side.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlexei Popyrin is out, he injured with a back injury and Matt Ebden has a small tear in his elbow, so those two will be going out,\u201d Hewitt said. \u201cWe\u2019ll bring in John Peers, Aleks Vukic and Rinky Hijikata.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally excited for Rinky, it\u2019ll be his first time wearing the green and gold and for him to get the opportunity playing at the place where he grew up, in Sydney, is something really special.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of the greatest things about this job, giving those guys that opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cVuk did a job for us in Sweden, and the conditions here suit him. Peersy was always coming in and Rinky came into the team when Matty Ebden got injured.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A frustrated Lleyton Hewitt will appeal the two-week ban and $30,000 fine he was slapped with this week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[2620,64,63,2071,29886,92947,92950,81759,92952,37660,92948,92949,92953,2020,85,747,92951,10911],"class_list":["post-134538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-belgium","tag-davis","tag-doping-control-official","tag-fundamental-role","tag-independent-tribunal","tag-karen-moorhouse","tag-lleyton-hewitt","tag-michael-heron","tag-offensive-conduct","tag-pushing-anti-doping-official","tag-spain","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-video-evidence","tag-world-number"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}