Fans Sprayed And Evicted At Melbourne Park

˝It was upsetting, I´ve never seen anything like it in my life at a tennis match,˝ Stephen Butterick, a BBC Radio producer said.

The spectre of crowd trouble reared its head at the Australian Open for the second successive year on Tuesday when supporters wearing Greek colours were sprayed by police and thrown out of the event.

The ruckus happened during the first-round match involving last year's runner-up Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and Konstantinos Economidis, a Greek qualifier ranked 142nd.

At around 8.20pm local time, Gonzalez had been leading 6-4 1-2 when the match was stopped for around 10 minutes as the fans were removed from the stadium by police.

In a statement, Victoria Police said they resorted to the pepper spray because they feared for their safety after fans became aggressive toward them, having failed to cut out what they described as "offensive chanting".

Three people were evicted and interviewed for assaulting police, failing to obey lawful direction and indecent language.

Eyewitnesses said trouble started when police stepped in to deal with a group of around 40 fans, who had been singing loudly between points in the match on Margaret Court Arena.

"It was upsetting, I've never seen anything like it in my life at a tennis match," Stephen Butterick, a BBC Radio producer said.

"The whole atmosphere had been like a Davis Cup match crossed with a football match.

"GREEK FANS"

"The Chileans outnumbered them by about 8-1 but the Greek guys were in one corner of the court, chanting, making loads of noise. We were watching Gonzalez, and suddenly, I don't know why, a policeman appeared.

"He tried to get someone and that stage there were two policemen. The other lads got up and started pushing and shoving and he (the policeman) sprayed some kind of mace spray.

"That set them off again and then, there weren't enough policemen, never more than three or four.

"The policemen to me looked a bit rattled -- two guys against maybe 70-80, that's not good.

"Then there was a second macing, and I'd say about a third of the Greek fans disappeared. One of the Greek lads who'd been sprayed then vomited -- I have never seen anything like it at a tennis match in my life."

The match resumed, but stopped again just one point later after more disruption in the crowd, before eventually the players were able to continue.

The trouble came a year after Croatian and Serbian fans fought and chanted insults at each other at the tournament, resulting in 150 people being ejected from the venue by police and security officials.

Tournament directors had promised that the event would have a "zero-tolerance" attitude for any trouble, helped by more CCTV coverage and a "significant" police presence.

Gonzalez said the chanting had made it like a Davis Cup tie and had added to the atmosphere but Economidis was left upset by events.

"I am really sad that this has taken place on a tennis court," Economidis told reporters.

"It's really something that nobody wants. It was a great atmosphere. It was full of people who were cheering and looked like they were enjoying the tennis and it was a really nice atmosphere until this moment. I am really unhappy."