Friday, January 23, 2009

Fans clash after Djokovic victory

Fans clash after Djokovic victory

AUSTRALIAN OPEN Venue: Melbourne Park Date: 19 January-1 FebruaryCoverage: BBC Red Button, BBC One & Two (including all Andy Murray matches), Radio 5 Live sports extra, BBC Sport website (Red Button coverage streamed on website throughout fortnight)
Amer Delic
Delic had appealed for calm before his match with Djokovic

Violence marred Novak Djokovic's match against Amer Delic at the Australian Open as Serbian and Bosnian supporters clashed outside the Rod Laver court.

Two men were arrested and 30 supporters ejected from the grounds as fans threw chairs and traded punches.

Bosnian-born American Delic had pleaded for calm before the match against Serbia's world number three Djokovic.

"As I said a couple days ago, there's absolutely no place for that here. This is a tennis match," said Delic.

One woman was knocked out after being hit with a chair, but was not seriously injured, while fighting continued outside Melbourne Park.

Two men were charged with riotous behaviour and discharging a missile while another man had been fined on the spot.

We will make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen

Police Inspector Chris Duthie
"The matter was dealt with very quickly and effectively by the police and we expect no more problems," said Inspector Chris Duthie.

"We have a very effective police presence here. You can't stop everything happening but we will make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen."

It is the third year running that the Australian Open has been marred by crowd trouble.

Last year police were forced to use pepper spray on a group of Greek supporters during a match between Spaniard Fernando Gonzalez and Greece's Konstantinos Economidis.

And in 2007 violence erupted on the opening day of the tournament when Serbian and Croatian fans attacked each other with flagpoles, bottles and boots.

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