VIDEO: David Nalbandian Assaults Linesman, May Face Criminal Charges

One time in high school, I blew a series of relatively easy shots, then slammed my racquet into my own leg. It created an impressive welt that I tried to turn into a badge of honor, though really it was just further proof that I wasn’t a very good tennis player.

Right about now, 30-year old David Nalbandian, who reached the finals of Wimbledon in 2002 and the semifinals of every other slam at least once, is probably wishing he too had chosen to punish himself. Instead, he chose to take out his frustrations on a wooden stand that happened to be housing a line judge at the Aegon Championships at Queen’s Club in London.

It appears now that Scotland Yard has gotten involved. London police are investigating whether to press assault charges against Nalbandian (via Deadspin).

Until this incident, the tournament was most noteworthy for Nalbandian’s return to form. The 30-year-old made the finals of Wimbledon ten years ago and has reached at least the semifinals of every slam in his career. He had taken the first set in a tie-breaker against Cilic, the world’s No. 18 player, in the Queen’s Club finals, but that storyline quickly ended in favor of a more damaging one. At the very least, he will now be forced to forfeit the prize money and points he had earned at the tournament and could be fined at least 10,000 extra Euros. And blaming the ATP for his frustration (“Sometimes the ATP puts a lot of pressure on the players and sometimes you get injured because you play on a dangerous surface”) probably wasn’t the best way to endear himself to ATP officials, either.