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Ethnic violence again mars Australian Open
Written by staff   
Saturday, 24 January 2009 06:51

Ethnic violence again marred the Australian Open on Friday when rival Serbian and Bosnian fans hurled chairs and missiles at each other, sparking condemnation from players and police.

Some 30 people in their late teens and early 20s were evicted after the clashes, which left one woman injured, following Serbian Novak Djokovic's win over Bosnian-born American Amer Delic, police said.

Disturbances continued outside Melbourne Park after the men and women were thrown out, with taunts and punches thrown.

In unprecedented scenes, the two sets of supporters gathered at Garden Square outside Rod Laver Arena after the match with the riot sparked by verbal abuse.

Dozens of chairs were then hurled by the groups shouting "C'mon" as passers-by cowered before police and security guards stepped in.

One woman was hit on the head by a chair and needed treatment for cuts and bruises. Two people were charged with riotous behaviour and discharging a missile.

"A number of people got into a chair-throwing contest between two groups with the result that 30-odd people were ejected from Rod Laver," said Inspector Chris Duthie of Melbourne East Police.

"The matter was dealt with very quickly and very effectively by the police and we expect no more problems at this stage."

Asked what the dispute was about, he replied: "I don't know, probably ethnic rivalries."

The Australian Open has gained an unsavoury reputation for ethnic clashes.

In 2007, the tournament was overshadowed when Serbian and Croatian fans, wearing the national colours of the bitter Balkan rivals, attacked each other with flagpoles, bottles and boots.

Then last year, police used pepper spray to subdue rowdy elements of the crowd watching a match between Konstantinos Economidis of Greece and Chile's Fernando Gonzales.

In response, police numbers were boosted this year and officers were issued with containers of capsicum foam to target troublemakers, although they were not used on Friday.

Delic had appealed before the match for calm.

"I'm really sad to hear about it. As I said a couple days ago, there's absolutely no place for that here. This is a tennis match," he said.

"I don't know who started, who finished, or whatever. Either way, on both sides I'm sure there were guys that wanted to cause problems. It's like that everywhere in the world.

Djokovic was reluctant to get involved, saying only that players had no control over what fans did.

"I am happy when I see that I have my own group of fans that are supporting me in a fair way, of course, not provoking my opponent and everything is going in a sportsmanship way," he said.

"I didn't know about this encounter whatever they had outside of the courts."

But fellow Serb Ana Ivanovic said violence had no place in sport.

"I really hope in the future people can end this and appreciate the tennis and the hard work we put in and just enjoy it rather than have fights," she said.

Swiss second seed Roger Federer strongly condemned the scenes and said the 'Happy Slam' deserved better.

"Of the fans 99.9 percent are great and then you have some people who carry it outside the tennis court and lose their minds," he said.

"It's unfortunate, it's not what should happen. We set an example as players and the fans should follow. It's only a small number of people who are doing it but it disrupts the tournament."

Tennis Australia chief executive Steve Wood praised police for dealing with the trouble "efficiently and effectively."

"But this behaviour should never have happened in the first place," he said.

"We are taking additional security measures to protect the integrity of the nation's much loved event."
 
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