Nastase ban cut but fine doubled as GB start with win

Ilie Nastase has had two bans reduced on appeal after his foul-mouthed comments and bad behavior as Romania’s Fed Cup captain last year.

The International Tennis Federation suspended the 71-year-old Nastase from the Fed Cup and Davis Cup until 2019 and from working in an official capacity in the sport until 2021.

An independent tribunal yesterday reduced each ban by eight months but doubled the fine to £14,400.

Nastase, the 1973 French Open champion, speculated about the skin colour of the then-unborn baby of Serena Williams during Romania’s Fed Cup match against Britain in April. He also hurled abuse at British player Johanna Konta and the umpire and made “unwelcome advances of a sexual nature” toward GB captain Anne Keothavong.

Nastase said: “While I have learned my lesson from this experience, I also hope that now they (the ITF) will realise that their treatment toward me was exaggerated.”

He said he would comply with tribunal’s decision and not attend Romanian Fed Cup matches this weekend against Canada.

The British Fed Cup team are currently in action in Tallinn and yesterday made a fine start to their campaign with a dominant win over Portugal. With no players in their quartet ranked in the top 500, Portugal were not expected to put up much resistance and Heather Watson and Konta did their jobs.

Watson got off to a shaky start against 17-year-old Francisca Jorge, trailing 3-1, but recovered to win 6-4, 6-2, while Konta beat Maria Joao Koehler 6-1, 6-0 in just 49 minutes.

Last year’s defeat by Romania kept GB in the Europe/africa Zone and this time Keothavong’s team must top their roundrobin group and then win a play-off on Saturday to give themselves another shot of getting into World Group II.

The crunch match is likely to come tomorrow, when they take on hosts Estonia, who boast two top-70 players in Anett Kontaveit and Kaia Kanepi.