Tennis violence

[faceless]

Balkans brawl mars Australian Open opening
Monday, 15 Jan 2007 08:42

The opening day of the Australian Open has been marred by a brawl between rival Serbian and Croatian supporters in Melbourne. More than 150 spectators were ejected from the Rod Laver Arena but no arrests were made by Victoria state police.A force spokesperson said that two groups of fans wearing national colours had been separated before serious fighting broke out, with no arrests being made or injuries sustained. "They were mostly Serbians ejected as they were upsetting the Croatians. Police are now meeting with Tennis Australia officials to work out the next move."

Melbourne has large Croatian and Serbian populations, with the former today seeing compatriots Mario Ancic, Karolina Sprem and Ivan Ljubicic in action, while Serbian Jelena Jankovic also played. Security personnel will be on high alert tomorrow when Serbia's Ilia Bozolojac plays Croatian Marin Cilic.

Responding to the incident, Tennis Australia chief executive Steve Wood insisted that any fans behaving unacceptably will have their tickets confiscated. "We hope that today's well coordinated response sends a clear message that while we are happy for fans to come along and support their favourite player, decisive action will be taken if any patrons, or groups, cross the line of acceptable behaviour at this family event," he said.

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That's madness eh? What next - crowd trouble at the opera? I saw this story also on the CNN site in which they said "there was no fighting" - who are they kidding?