French Maxime Hamou

A French tennis player who tried to kiss a television reporter against her will during a live broadcast at Roland Garros was banished from the tournament yesterday for his "reprehensible behaviour".

Maxime Hamou, 21, grabbed Eurosport journalist Maly Thomas around the neck and shoulders while she interviewed him following his first round defeat on Monday. "It was frankly unpleasant. If it hadn’t been live on air, I would have punched him," Thomas told the French edition of the Huffington Post. Hamou, the World No. 287, was subsequently banished by organisers.