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Indian Wells - Michael Llodra was slapped with a $2 500 fine for using a racial slur during his opening-round match against Ernests Gulbis at the ATP Tour's Indian Wells tournament, officials said on Sunday.
The French player yelled at a Chinese female supporter of Gulbis during his 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7/3) win over the Latvian on Friday.
The incident was witnessed by Canadian journalist Tom Tebbutt who wrote about it on his social networking Twitter site.
"Sat very first row -- dead centre behind the court for Llodra-Gulbis -- heard a lot. Deplorable behaviour by Llodra -- read next tweet.
"ML smacked ball out of court, threw racquet, called female Gulbis supporter in crowd a ‘(bleep)ing Chinese.' I confirmed later with brother of woman."
Officials said Llodra was also verbally abusive towards the ball kids and their co-ordinator during the match. Besides the fine, Llodra had to apologise for his actions.
Llodra and his doubles partner Nenad Zimonjic reached the finals of back-to-back tournaments in China last year, winning the doubles in Beijing and finishing as runners-up in Shanghai.
Llodra withdrew from his second round match against fellow Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first set on Sunday because of a knee injury.
The French player yelled at a Chinese female supporter of Gulbis during his 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7/3) win over the Latvian on Friday.
The incident was witnessed by Canadian journalist Tom Tebbutt who wrote about it on his social networking Twitter site.
"Sat very first row -- dead centre behind the court for Llodra-Gulbis -- heard a lot. Deplorable behaviour by Llodra -- read next tweet.
"ML smacked ball out of court, threw racquet, called female Gulbis supporter in crowd a ‘(bleep)ing Chinese.' I confirmed later with brother of woman."
Officials said Llodra was also verbally abusive towards the ball kids and their co-ordinator during the match. Besides the fine, Llodra had to apologise for his actions.
Llodra and his doubles partner Nenad Zimonjic reached the finals of back-to-back tournaments in China last year, winning the doubles in Beijing and finishing as runners-up in Shanghai.
Llodra withdrew from his second round match against fellow Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first set on Sunday because of a knee injury.
