The Australian Open tournament director has dismissed suggestions that action needs to be taken to address crowd behavior after a series of incidents at this year’s event.
Craig Tiley says that ‘99.9 per cent of fans‘ didn’t overstep the mark at the Grand Slam. Danielle Collins told reporters that ‘a lot of people were super drunk and had a hard time controlling themselves’ during her match against local player Destanee Aiava. Novak Djokovic was controversially booed off the court after retiring from his semi-final match against Alexander Zverev due to injury. Meanwhile, shortly after the men’s final finished on Sunday runner-up Zverev was heckled at by a spectator over domestic abuse allegations that had been previously made against him by two women.
When asked if he would consider implementing restrictions on alcohol consumption at Melbourne Park, Tiley dismissed the idea by arguing that there is no issue. He then unexpectedly went on to take aim at last year’s Davis Cup Finals in Malagda by suggesting the crowd behaviour was worst there.
“I’m not worried about the crowd behaviour,” 7 News Australia reported Tiley as saying on Monday.
“I was at the Davis Cup a couple of months ago in Malaga and no one complained about the crowd behaviour there, and you couldn’t hear yourself speak.
“The Australian team were against the wall. It was in Spain, but the Italians were going crazy.
“So I struggle to understand why people think that’s different. That’s far worse (behaviour).”
Acknowledging there have been incidents at the Grand Slam, Tiley goes on to say it would be ‘strange’ if there were none given the number of spectators. The cumulative attendance for the tournament this year has been nearly 1.1 million, which is a new record.
“I fully expect controversies,” he continued.
“With one million people coming through the gate for over three weeks, if there’s nothing, that would be a bit strange.
“There’s always going to be one or two that heckle or say something. The same thing last year and the year before.
“But it’s not like the number of evictions we’ve had have gone crazy high. Evictions have been on par with previous years, or fewer.
“And our officials are instructed very clearly that, if they get a call for any disruption of play, they radio in and security go to the people.”
There have also been questions raised about the fairness of scheduling some matches which was highlighted by the men’s double final. Harri Heliovaara and Henry Patten defeated Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori 6-7(16), 7-6(5) 6-3, in a gripping match that didn’t end until 1:45am local time in an almost empty stadium.
However, this has also been downplayed by Tiley who insists he has received ‘exceptional feedback’ from fans, players and his team.