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1/22/09 10:04 AM | Johan Lindahl
Rising Croatian Marin Cilic has called for calm after being abused by Serbian supporters as another Balkan boilover threatened the Australian Open for a third consecutive edition.
After a mini-riot in 2007 and a police capsicum spray attack in 2008, this year's trouble was tame.
But Cilic said that he did not appreciate the insults from opposing fans as he beat Serbian Janko Tipsarevic in the second round. To his credit, Tipsarevic stopped play to urge his people to shut up.
"They said a couple of bad words, so he said to be quiet and not talk about bad things", said No. 20 Cilic. "The things they were saying was really not nice".
"It was tough to play, of course. I knew from the beginning it was going to be like that. There's not much you can do". Cilic also said Croatians didn't help matter by hurling insults of their own.
But to English-speakers in the crowd, the heated words were just so much gibberish. "You don't want to know", Cilic said of the vocabulary on offer.
Tensions spilled over later at the beer tent with a few punches being thrown and several participants frog-marched out of the grounds.
In the first round, American Taylor Dent copped it from supporters of Bosnian-born American Amer Delic, with Dent complaining five times about the chanting against him as Delic finally won.
"I've played a lot of Grand Slam tennis and I can tell you their behavior wouldn't be allowed anywhere in the world," fumed Dent. "It was out of control. They were interrupting serves, they were chanting during line calls and even in the middle of a point".
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They should be burnt at the stake!
remi , 1/28/09 3:03 PM