Lleyton Hewitt launched defamation action against the Associiation of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in the South Australian Supreme Court on Wednesday, just hours after he was given the top seeding for his Wimbledon defence.
The 22-year-old Hewitt, who lost the world No. 1 ranking to Andre Agassi last week, is suing the ATP, which runs the men’s tennis tour, for $1,5-million. He’s claiming he was unfairly fined for failing to show or a US TV interview before a tournament in Cincinnati last August.
Hewitt’s manager Rob Aivatoglou confirmed that lawyers had started the court action, the Australian Associated Press reported.
Hewitt announced his intention to sue the ATP last month, saying it could only be avoided if the ATP made a public apology and admitted that the fine had been wrongly imposed. The ATP refused to bow to his demands.
Hewitt’s lawyers lodged legal papers reportedly claiming that the ATP had irreparably damaged his reputation within the general and tennis community, it had acted in bad faith and had denied him natural justice.
Hewitt was fined $106 000 by the ATP for allegedly failing to fulfill his commitments in an interview for US network ESPN on August 6.
The fine was reduced to $20 000 on appeal on January 14 and Hewitt maintains that he’d been prepared to do the interview, after he’d been informed of the possible fine.
He said the ATP had unlawfully withheld half his prize money at Cincinnati, where he lost the final to Carlos Moya.
Hewitt is in London practicing for Wimbledon. Last week he lost at Queens, the key warm up for the grass court classic, for the first time in four years.
Jason Stoltenberg announced earlier in the month that he’d quit as Hewitt’s coach because he needed to spend more time at home with his young family.
Stoltenberg had replaced Darren Cahill as Hewitt’s coach after the Australian became, in November 2001, the youngest year-end No. 1 in tennis’s professional era.
Hewitt was drawn against qualifiers in the opening two rounds at Wimbledon, which starts on Monday. – Sapa-AP