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/ 20 January 2008

Off-court dramas unsettle Hewitt

Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt says behind-the-scenes scheduling dramas unsettled his build-up to his big Australian Open match with Marcos Baghdatis that led to the latest finish in grand-slam history. Meanwhile, fifth seed Maria Sharapova brushed aside fellow Russian Elena Dementieva and Justine Henin stormed into the quarterfinals.

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/ 18 January 2008

The changing face of tennis

Suddenly there seem to be as many policemen involved in tennis as there are players. Gone are the days when a London bobby, with minimum fuss and barely a whiff of publicity, would quietly lead away an offending clergyman from the packed aisles of the outside courts at Wimbledon for having something less than pure intentions towards certain members of the watching flock.

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/ 16 January 2008

Back to normal at Aussie Open

Police defended their use of pepper spray on rowdy tennis fans and the sport’s big guns kept on blasting at Melbourne Park as the Australian Open got back on track on Wednesday. As the fall-out of Tuesday night’s crowd trouble settled, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova all blasted their way into the third round of the year’s opening Grand Slam.

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/ 16 January 2008

Police defend use of pepper spray at Open

Victoria Police vigorously defended its use of pepper spray on a section of the crowd at the Australian Open tennis on Tuesday night, saying its officers had feared for their own safety. Three people were arrested and charged with offences relating to assaulting police, resisting arrest and failing to obey the lawful instructions of the police force.

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/ 10 January 2008

Security clampdown at Aussie Open

Australian Open organisers on Thursday said there would be a heavy police presence at this year’s tournament to prevent the brawls and sexually related offences that marred the event in 2007. Police were caught off-guard in 2007 when locally based Serbian and Croatian fans clashed on the first day of the tournament.