Jan 23 (Reuters) - Crowd violence spilled over at the Australian Open -- once dubbed the 'Happy Slam' -- in Melbourne again on Friday. Following is a factbox of violent incidents at the grand slam tournament in recent years.
* Around 150 fans were evicted from Melbourne Park on the opening day of the 2007 tournament after vicious fighting flared between rival Croat and Serb supporters. The fans attacked each other with bottles and flagpoles. Police were caught on the back foot by the first time such violence had flared in more than 100 years of grand slam tennis.
* In 2008, fans of Greek descent were subdued by police pepper spray after trouble erupted during a match between Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and Konstantinos Economidis, a Greek qualifier on Margaret Court Arena. The match had to be stopped for 10 minutes as the fans were removed from the stadium by police.
* Former finalist Phil Dent warned at the 2009 tournament that disruptive fans with ethnic ties at the Open were certain to cause a riot unless there was a security crackdown. Dent was outraged at the behaviour of teenage fans supporting the Bosnian-born American Amer Delic in the first-round match against his American son Taylor. "I've got to tell you their behaviour would not be accepted anywhere in the world," Dent told local radio.
* In 2009 police escorted at least five fans from Melbourne Park after narrowly averting an all-out brawl. Security moved in after tensions had boiled over in the match between Croatian Marin Cilic and Serbian Janko Tipsarevic. Punches were later thrown in a scuffle near a packed bar.
* Ethnic tension burst into violent crowd scenes after Serb Novak Djokovic's third-round win against Bosnian-born Delic. Groups of rival fans hurled chairs at each other in the beer garden outside centre court when simmering tension boiled over under the hot Melbourne sun. One woman was knocked cold when a chair struck her head. Police arrested two men and ejected another 30 people from the grounds.
(Compiled by Ossian Shine, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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* Around 150 fans were evicted from Melbourne Park on the opening day of the 2007 tournament after vicious fighting flared between rival Croat and Serb supporters. The fans attacked each other with bottles and flagpoles. Police were caught on the back foot by the first time such violence had flared in more than 100 years of grand slam tennis.
* In 2008, fans of Greek descent were subdued by police pepper spray after trouble erupted during a match between Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and Konstantinos Economidis, a Greek qualifier on Margaret Court Arena. The match had to be stopped for 10 minutes as the fans were removed from the stadium by police.
* Former finalist Phil Dent warned at the 2009 tournament that disruptive fans with ethnic ties at the Open were certain to cause a riot unless there was a security crackdown. Dent was outraged at the behaviour of teenage fans supporting the Bosnian-born American Amer Delic in the first-round match against his American son Taylor. "I've got to tell you their behaviour would not be accepted anywhere in the world," Dent told local radio.
* In 2009 police escorted at least five fans from Melbourne Park after narrowly averting an all-out brawl. Security moved in after tensions had boiled over in the match between Croatian Marin Cilic and Serbian Janko Tipsarevic. Punches were later thrown in a scuffle near a packed bar.
* Ethnic tension burst into violent crowd scenes after Serb Novak Djokovic's third-round win against Bosnian-born Delic. Groups of rival fans hurled chairs at each other in the beer garden outside centre court when simmering tension boiled over under the hot Melbourne sun. One woman was knocked cold when a chair struck her head. Police arrested two men and ejected another 30 people from the grounds.
(Compiled by Ossian Shine, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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