Chela, Hewitt Have a Little Spat During Match

Juan Ignacio Chela was not going to get away with this one. Not with his picture plastered all over the front pages and constant TV replays showing him apparently spitting in the direction of Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.

Fighting mad turned into spitting mad Saturday night in their third-round match at the Australian Open, which Hewitt won, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. And Chela, of Argentina, found himself $2,000 lighter today after receiving a fine for unsportsmanlike conduct.

It is the largest fine assessed this year at the Open. Spitting in this manner usually draws a monetary sanction. Last year, Fabrice Santoro of France appeared to spit in the direction of a line judge and was fined $1,500.

Chela admitted that he spit. How could he not? But he said afterward, through an interpreter, that he was not spitting in Hewitt’s direction.

Photographic evidence suggested otherwise. In one newspaper photo, Hewitt appeared stunned as the saliva left Chela’s mouth during a changeover in the fourth set. Afterward, they spoke at the net and Hewitt said Chela apologized for his action.

Chela came undone after what he felt were a few too many of Hewitt’s boisterous screams of “C’mon!” during the tense struggle and even appeared to try to hit him with a first serve.

“Oh, mate, I don’t think it’s the right thing, no. But, yeah, it’s unfortunate because we’re having a good dogfight match out there,” Hewitt said of the spitting. “We’re both competitive blokes out there. We were going for it.

“Yeah, it’s sad that something like that happens. But at the end of the day he apologized to me at the net when we shook hands. I said, ‘Just forget about it, mate.’ ”

That seems unlikely in Hewitt country. A day after the controversy, other players were being quizzed about the spitting incident. Defending champion Roger Federer was asked about the $2,000 fine.

“It depends how close he spat,” Federer said. “I mean, we hardly ever get that in tennis, so it’s tough. I don’t know what the rule says. I don’t do it. He can be fined $10,000, I don’t care.

“But I think there should be a fine. We see it in soccer sometimes. It’s not something nice, so I’m happy he gets fined ... things like that don’t belong on a tennis court.”