{"id":159677,"date":"2025-09-25T14:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T14:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/159677\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T14:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T14:29:07","slug":"lleyton-hewitts-dad-issues-fiery-statement-after-son-banned-for-pushing-volunteer-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/159677\/","title":{"rendered":"Lleyton Hewitt’s dad issues fiery statement after son banned for ‘pushing volunteer’ | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

The father of Lleyton Hewitt has issued a fiery rebuke of the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) after his son was banned for allegedly shoving an anti-doping volunteer. The two-time Grand Slam champion was hit with a two-week suspension in addition to a fine of $30,000 (\u00a322,309)<\/a>. He was allowed to captain Australia at the Davis Cup earlier this month but his ban officially started on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

During a tournament last year, the 44-year-old is alleged to have pushed a 60-year-old volunteer as he walked through a tunnel. Hewitt argued that he was trying to prevent the man from touching him because he was recovering from abdominal surgery. He also denied knowing who the man was.<\/p>\n

The ITIA said they handed down the ban due to Hewitt’s “poor disciplinary record, including five prior incidents of offensive conduct towards tennis officials and non-compliance with tennis rules.”<\/p>\n

Hewitt flagged an appeal over the sanction during a press event at the Davis Cup, but it was later dropped. His father has since released a passionate statement hitting out at the ITIA and expressing his ‘total lack of trust’ in their process.<\/p>\n

“The ITF is a member of the ITIA, has representation on its board, requested attendance at the ‘independent’ tribunal and supplied witnesses for them,” read the statement, which was issued via law firm WRP Legal.<\/p>\n

“It is well known that the ITF have been unhappy with Lleyton’s criticism of their management of the Davis Cup competition.<\/p>\n

“From selling the rights to the company of a soccer player [former Barcelona defender Gerard Pique], completely changing the format, to them entering into an arrangement which allowed the company out of the deal.<\/p>\n

“Their conduct changed the Davis Cup, built up over 100 years, to a shambolic example of its former self. The ITIA’s sole objective was to have Lleyton banned from performing his role as Davis Cup captain and to that extent they failed.<\/p>\n

“It was decided not to appeal as there was a total lack of trust in the process that had been experienced to date and it would be tantamount to having the ITIA mark their own homework.<\/p>\n

“We also expressed a desire that should any fines eventuate that they go to the Ken McGregor Tennis Foundation for junior players. This request was not taken up by the ITIA.”<\/p>\n

In a separate statement issued by WRP Legal earlier this month<\/a>, Hewitt claimed that ‘manipulated video evidence’ had been used against him.<\/p>\n

The ITIA, meanwhile, said that it would only “urge people to read the full decision, which is available on the ITIA website.”<\/p>\n

To be the first to receive the latest tennis news, join our WhatsApp community<\/a> or newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The father of Lleyton Hewitt has issued a fiery rebuke of the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[14470,51140,51141,72705,72706,72708,72707,1443,101,118,12700,872,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-159677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-davis-cup","tag-international-tennis-integrity-agency","tag-itia","tag-lleyton-hewitt","tag-lleyton-hewitt-ban","tag-lleyton-hewitt-dad","tag-lleyton-hewitt-father","tag-sport-section","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-section","tag-tennis-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}