Tennis Player Banned From French Open After He Attempted to Kiss a Female Reporter Several Times

Tennis player Maxime Hamou was banned from the French Open Tuesday after attempting to kiss a female reporter several times while she tried to interview him.

“The management of the tournament has decided to revoke Maxime Hamou’s accreditation following his reprehensible behavior with a journalist yesterday,”the French tennis federation said in a statement,according to The Telegraph.

Footage shows reporter Maly Thomas trying interview Hamou, who lost his first round match Monday. Hamou grabs Thomas and puts his arm around her as she tries to ask him questions, before kissing her three times on the side of her neck. She laughs, and he does it again. She again tries to interview him and he responds before trying again to kiss her. She appears to be trying to push him away as she continues to report, but he pulls her toward him, and she pushes away.

“If I hadn’t been live on air, I would have punched him,” Thomas told Huffington Post France, according to a translation from the BBC.

Hamou apologized on Tuesday in a statement posted on Facebook. According to a translation of the statement provided by the BBC, he offered “deep apologies” to Thomas if she felt “hurt or shocked by my attitude during her interview.”