Lleyton Hewitt tells The Courier-Mail that after he got into a confrontation with Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela at the 2005 Australian Open, his relationship with Chela’s Davis Cup teammate David Nalbandian quickly went south.
“When I beat Nalbandian in the [2002] Wimbledon final we were fine and used to practice together,” Hewitt said. “I played Chela at the Australian Open and he spat at me. He got frustrated with me revving the crowd up and saying “C’mon”. At the time I did not do much about it but my coach Roger Rasheed went ballistic in the locker room at Chela his coach and his trainer…Two matches later I played Nalbandian in the quarterfinals on Australia Day. I won the first two sets and lost the next two and in the middle of the fifth set we bumped shoulders. It was not a big thing but Nalbandian turned around as if to say “what have you done?” We both could have stopped but we just kept walking. I won 10-8 in the fifth and have never spoken to the bloke since [and] I probably never will. I am not a big fan of the guy. I have heard some stories about him.”