Ilie Nastase banned until 2021 and given £8k fine for Fed Cup misdemeanours

Ilie Nastase, the disgraced Romanian Fed Cup captain, has been banned from acting in an official capacity in tennis competitions until 2021 and fined £7.7k for his various misdemeanours during April's tie against Great Britain. 

Nastase has also been suspended from attending International Tennis Federation (ITF) events until 2019, though that excludes ATP and WTA events - including grand slams - as they are outside of the ITF's jurisdiction. 

The ITF's punishment comes after Nastase's disgraceful behaviour in April that saw him allegedly call the tie referee a "f****** arsehole" and Britain's Johanna Konta a "f****** bitch". Nastase had earlier made an uninvited joke about Serena Williams’ unborn baby, who has a white father. "Let’s see what colour it has. Chocolate with milk," he said.

Nastase also asked British Fed Cup captain Anne Keothavong for her room number and stormed into the press room to unleash a tirade against a British journalist, calling her "stupid" for reporting his comments, and later calling her "ugly".

All of these incidents were taken into account by the ITF, who found Nastase guilty of breaching four articles of the Fed Cup Welfare Policy. 

Nastase attempted to evade the charges by claiming he had issued apologies to the various people he had offended.

The ITF though dismissed the defence and the 71-year-old's submitted evidence in mitigation of his comments about Williams that "he comes from a nation where racism is not  'as  delicate an issue as it may be in other parts of the  world'". 

The Romanian's defence also claimed that "There is also no prior evidence of Mr. Nastase being racist; his friendships and partnerships with contemporaries such as Arthur Ashe and Yannick Noah stand as evidence to the contrary."

Because Nastase's ban only relates to ITF events, it will fall to individual tournaments to decide whether to admit the Romanian or not. The All England Club withdrew its usual invitation to Nastase to sit in the Royal Box at this year's Wimbledon, but it will be at the US Open's discretion as to whether to do likewise for the next grand slam of the year in August.

After Nastase was given a provisional suspension by the ITF in April, there were calls for the two-time grand slam champion to be given a lifetime ban from tennis.