Post by Brittles on Jan 24, 2009 1:45:30 GMT
For years the scum of Australian journalism waged an anti - British campaign and especially against the ordinary British football supporter. Every single little misdemeanor was catapulted into a major page filler and its anti - British-ness was the underlying motivator.
How times have changed ...........................
Neds Downunder might well be an Oscar nomination next year.
Insults, punches and then chairs were thrown at Melbourne Park on Friday during fighting between Serbian and Bosnian spectators after the third-round match of the Australian Open between Serbian Novak Djokovic, the defending champion, and Amer Delic, a Bosnian-born American.
By Mark Hodgkinson in Melbourne
Last Updated: 10:22PM GMT 23 Jan 2009
link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1529569285/bctid8826533001
But the day will not just be remembered for a few ticket-holders with Balkan backgrounds coming to Melbourne Park to rearrange the furniture.
That was just one face of the Balkans on day five of the first grand slam of the year – albeit the ugly, nasty, malevolent face. We also had the disappointed face of the Balkans, with Serbian Ana Ivanovic, a beaten finalist here last season, losing in the third round to Alisa Kleybanova, a Russian who is unlikely to be bringing out an exercise video soon.
And then there was the smiling, happy face of the Balkans, after wild card Jelena Dokic, who was born in the former Yugoslavia, but who plays under the Australian flag, defeated Caroline Wozniacki, the No 11 seed from Denmark, to move into the last 16. The chairs were flying at Melbourne Park, but then so were the connections to one corner of eastern Europe.
Two men were arrested and another 30 were removed from the grounds after the fighting, in which one woman was knocked out after being struck on the head by a chair. It is the third year in succession that there have been crowd disturbances at the Australian Open, following the running battles between Croatian and Serbian supporters during the 2007 tournament and last year's incident when police used pepper-spray on a group of Greek spectators.
The tournament's image took another battering. The French Open is known for being terribly chic, Wimbledon is famed for its strawberry-and-cream traditions, and the US Open prides itself on being the loudest party in the sport, but now the Australian Open has developed a reputation for being the Fight Club of the tennis world, for being the place where ethnic tensions crackle in the garden area. Roger Federer once called this the 'Happy Slam', but it hardly looks like that after yet more fighting. The 'Happy-Slapping Slam', more like.
Earlier this week, fans were ejected from the tournament after scuffles in a bar that followed Croatian Marin Cilic's second-round victory over Janko Tipsarevic, of Serbia. Before the match against Djokovic, Delic had posted a message on his website asking his supporters not to cause any unrest.
Inside the Rod Laver Arena, the Bosnian and Serbian spectators were generally well behaved, and the match itself was played out in a sporting manner, including Djokovic and Delic exchanging grins after using the Hawk-Eye technology to challenge the linecalls. But outside around the garden square area, it was a different story after Djokovic's 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 victory, in which Delic, a lucky loser, held two points for the fourth set.
But, later in the day, we had Dokic's emotional, feel-good result, a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory, and her second in two rounds over a top-20 opponent after her win over Russia's Anna Chakvetadze.
Melbourne is fascinated by Dokic, who famously reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon when she was just 16 years old, having beaten defending champion Martina Hingis in the first round, but who even more famously has an extremely unpleasant father, Damir. When compiling a list of 'nightmare tennis parents', Damir is the absolute gold standard. The bearded former wrestler was once ejected from the US Open for arguing over the price of salmon in the players' restaurant, he stamped on a journalist's mobile phone at Wimbledon, and once suggested that the draw for the Australian Open was rigged.
So Damir is one French Open misdemeanour away from a career grand slam of bad behaviour. Damir was also arrested in Birmingham one year after he was lying in the road. On other occasion, he has threatened to drop a nuclear warhead on Sydney.
Dokic is estranged from her father, and in the last few years has had to deal with depression and worries about her weight. She next plays Kleybanova, who registered a 7-5, 6-7, 6-2 win over Ivanovic.
How times have changed ...........................
Neds Downunder might well be an Oscar nomination next year.
Insults, punches and then chairs were thrown at Melbourne Park on Friday during fighting between Serbian and Bosnian spectators after the third-round match of the Australian Open between Serbian Novak Djokovic, the defending champion, and Amer Delic, a Bosnian-born American.
By Mark Hodgkinson in Melbourne
Last Updated: 10:22PM GMT 23 Jan 2009
link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1529569285/bctid8826533001
But the day will not just be remembered for a few ticket-holders with Balkan backgrounds coming to Melbourne Park to rearrange the furniture.
That was just one face of the Balkans on day five of the first grand slam of the year – albeit the ugly, nasty, malevolent face. We also had the disappointed face of the Balkans, with Serbian Ana Ivanovic, a beaten finalist here last season, losing in the third round to Alisa Kleybanova, a Russian who is unlikely to be bringing out an exercise video soon.
And then there was the smiling, happy face of the Balkans, after wild card Jelena Dokic, who was born in the former Yugoslavia, but who plays under the Australian flag, defeated Caroline Wozniacki, the No 11 seed from Denmark, to move into the last 16. The chairs were flying at Melbourne Park, but then so were the connections to one corner of eastern Europe.
Two men were arrested and another 30 were removed from the grounds after the fighting, in which one woman was knocked out after being struck on the head by a chair. It is the third year in succession that there have been crowd disturbances at the Australian Open, following the running battles between Croatian and Serbian supporters during the 2007 tournament and last year's incident when police used pepper-spray on a group of Greek spectators.
The tournament's image took another battering. The French Open is known for being terribly chic, Wimbledon is famed for its strawberry-and-cream traditions, and the US Open prides itself on being the loudest party in the sport, but now the Australian Open has developed a reputation for being the Fight Club of the tennis world, for being the place where ethnic tensions crackle in the garden area. Roger Federer once called this the 'Happy Slam', but it hardly looks like that after yet more fighting. The 'Happy-Slapping Slam', more like.
Earlier this week, fans were ejected from the tournament after scuffles in a bar that followed Croatian Marin Cilic's second-round victory over Janko Tipsarevic, of Serbia. Before the match against Djokovic, Delic had posted a message on his website asking his supporters not to cause any unrest.
Inside the Rod Laver Arena, the Bosnian and Serbian spectators were generally well behaved, and the match itself was played out in a sporting manner, including Djokovic and Delic exchanging grins after using the Hawk-Eye technology to challenge the linecalls. But outside around the garden square area, it was a different story after Djokovic's 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 victory, in which Delic, a lucky loser, held two points for the fourth set.
But, later in the day, we had Dokic's emotional, feel-good result, a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory, and her second in two rounds over a top-20 opponent after her win over Russia's Anna Chakvetadze.
Melbourne is fascinated by Dokic, who famously reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon when she was just 16 years old, having beaten defending champion Martina Hingis in the first round, but who even more famously has an extremely unpleasant father, Damir. When compiling a list of 'nightmare tennis parents', Damir is the absolute gold standard. The bearded former wrestler was once ejected from the US Open for arguing over the price of salmon in the players' restaurant, he stamped on a journalist's mobile phone at Wimbledon, and once suggested that the draw for the Australian Open was rigged.
So Damir is one French Open misdemeanour away from a career grand slam of bad behaviour. Damir was also arrested in Birmingham one year after he was lying in the road. On other occasion, he has threatened to drop a nuclear warhead on Sydney.
Dokic is estranged from her father, and in the last few years has had to deal with depression and worries about her weight. She next plays Kleybanova, who registered a 7-5, 6-7, 6-2 win over Ivanovic.
