Hooligans again marred the Australian Open on Monday with eleven people thrown out of Melbourne Park for unruly behaviour and another group banned from entering.
A group of supporters were ejected from court six after standing on chairs and shouting during Croat Ivo Karlovic’s match against Czech Radek Stepanek.
Security guards marched the troublemakers from the grounds with the help of police as one fan was found to be carrying a flare.
They were banned for the duration of the tournament and two were issued with on-the-spot fines, one for disrupting play and the other for possessing a flare, but no charges were laid.
Earlier in the day, a large group of chanting Croats lit flares and made offensive and threatening gestures as they headed enmasse to the tournament. The Herald Sun newspaper said one of its photographers was spat on and slapped as he photographed the group.
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Victoria state police said eight of the group were refused entry. However, Superintendent Jock Menzel denied security had failed after flares were smuggled in.
“Security processes and procedures are very tight, you must understand people are innovative and they will go to great lengths to smuggle contraband into the particular venue, it does happen quite frequently,” he said.
“These 11 people were disruptive, they were standing on seats and they were causing problems for the other spectators who were there to watch the game.
“Tennis Australia and Victoria Police, we won’t tolerate poor behaviour and we’ve demonstrated that. We’re here to set a standard. Our mission is to make sure the event occurs in a happy and safe way and that people are safe, and we’re going to make sure that occurs.”
Racial tensions and trouble have marred the Australian Open in recent years. Some of the worst scenes were on the opening day of the 2007 tournament when Serbian and Croatian fans, wearing the national colours of the bitter Balkan rivals, attacked each other with flagpoles, bottles and boots.
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Then in 2008, police used pepper spray to subdue rowdy elements of the crowd watching a match between Konstantinos Economidis of Greece and Chile’s Fernando Gonzales.
There was more trouble last year with several people currently facing court over a fight between Serbian and Bosnian fans. Since then, police numbers have been boosted and more CCTV cameras installed with officials last week saying they were confident there would be no repetition of the ugly scenes.