Australian Open: Crowd support should be celebrated not shouted down

The Australian Open is the most cosmopolitan major in tennis — and while there are of course limits, loud and boisterous crowd support should be celebrated not shouted down.

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More than any other grand slam, the Australian Open is the meeting ground of tribes.

Where the French Open retains irresistible chic, Wimbledon oozes style and traditionalism and the US Open reeks of brashness, Melbourne Park is the most cosmopolitan of the lot.

While grand slam stalwarts such as the US, Australia, France and Great Britain account for the bulk of player representation, flags of nations not usually associated with tennis flutter around the grounds.

The presence of players from Latvia, Georgia, Estonia, Kazakhstan and Greece brings a different – and welcome – dimension at a tournament with the largest physical footprint of the lot.

The Australian Open, with its $71 million largesse and massive grounds, is a tournament of opportunity. For players, purists and infrequent tennis enthusiasts.

Occasionally, that intersection becomes clogged. And complicated.

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Greek fans show their support for Stefanos Tsitsipas. Picture: Getty Images

Over the years, Melbourne Park has seen random incidents of jingoistic hostility.

In 2009, 30 spectators from Serbia and Bosnia were evicted from the grounds after clashing violently in Garden Square following a match between Novak Djokovic and Amer Delic.

That sorry episode sits at the extreme end of the Melbourne Park’s scale. It remains the Happy Slam.

The loud and boisterous crowd support for Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas in his match against Salvatore Caruso – while uncomfortable for the Italian – was nothing in comparison.

Tsitsipas raised the issue post-match, mostly because of his empathy for Caruso and the fact the pair will almost certainly share locker-rooms around the world for next year.

Fans made their presence felt during Stefanos Tsitsipas’ clash with Salvatore Caruso. Picture: AAP

In an era where sanitisation bleeds sport and characters dry, tennis can’t afford to revert to draconian observance of etiquette.

But there are limits, which is why Tsitsipas made an issue of the partisan support on Monday night.

One area which must remain absolutely sacrosanct is the time from which a player steps to the baseline to serve to the end of the point.

Unlike Davis and Fed Cup where there are rules – sadly, rarely applied – to punish nations whose spectators intimidate to the point of being unfair, major tournaments are virtually self-regulating.

Players have the right to halt service motions and draw hindrance to the attention of officials.

Caruso appeared confused and rattled in the soccer-like atmosphere. Tsitsipas was sympathetic.

Given the attention the issue has now received – and Tsitsipas’ sporting call for better behaviour – expect more security at the Greek’s second-round clash with Philipp Kohlschreiber.

Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas generated plenty of support at Melbourne Park.

And if it’s again rowdy, the person least affected will be the tough-as-teak German.

Far removed from tennis’ prima donna stereotype, Kohlschreiber won the Bendigo Challenger two weeks ago, collected a cheque for $31,000 — and caught the train to Melbourne’s Southern Cross station.

A certain former Canadian doubles player used to complain about the pillow quality in swanky London hotels.

A bit of aggravating crowd noise won’t even register with unflappable Kohlschreiber – unless it’s during his ball toss.

And there’ll be plenty of German noise there, too, in the meeting of tennis tribes.

Originally published as Australian Open: Crowd support should be celebrated not shouted down