Golf: Nastase not welcome at Wimbledon this year

 

Former Romanian tennis player Ilie Nastase will not be welcome at this year's Wimbledon championships and could be stopped at the gate if he tries to attend.

The 70-year-old former French and US Open champion is provisionally banned from all International Tennis Federation (ITF) events after hurling allegedly racist and sexist comments during Romania's Fed Cup tie with Britain last month.
All England Club chairman Philip Brook said he "condemned" the behaviour of two-time Wimbledon runner-up Nastase.

Who is 'Nasty' Nastase?

More than just an easy piece of alliteration, Ilie Nastase earned his nickname and reputation for disrespecting women long before his Fed Cup outbursts.

"In terms of an invitation to the Royal Box, he won't receive one this year," Brook said at the club's spring news conference.
Club chief executive Richard Lewis went further, saying Nastase "could be stopped at the gate" if he tried to enter the grounds with a ticket.

But Nastase believes the organisers are being "small-minded", and can not understand the ban.
"What does Wimbledon have to do with what I said about Serena and at the match in Romania?" he said.
"If I did something stupid at Wimbledon then I'd understand if I were then suspended. But in this case, I don't get it."If they are going to be so small-minded about it, there's nothing I can do."

Romanian Fed Cup captain Nastase, who courted controversy throughout his career, was booted out of his country's tie with Britain for "unsportsmanlike" behaviour.

Nastase had already run into trouble during the World Group II playoff tie in Constanta, after allegedly making a derogatory comment about American great Serena Williams' unborn child.