Up to 20 Greek supporters have been ejected from the Australian Open for disruptive behaviour.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The fans were supporting the country's No.1 women's player Maria Sakkari in a late afternoon match on Court 8 against Japanese Nao Hibino.
"About 6.05pm this evening a group of 15-20 males were evicted from the tennis for disruptive behaviour," Victoria Police said in a statement.
"The group had received numerous warnings during a match on Court 8 from a match referee, security and police.
"After the match the group were asked to leave and did so peacefully."
News Corp Australia quoted a number of fans who said they were simply chanting and cheering and had been ushered out for no reason.
Sakkari, who won the match in straight sets, said she felt the support had been positive and that she would miss the fans if they were banned from attending her future matches.
"It is going to be different playing here without them (if banned) for sure," Sakkari said.
"I really like it and it makes me play even better and get more pumped; that's why it's one of my preferred places to play.
"So I really hope that it's not going to happen."
On Monday Greece's top men's player Stefanos Tsitsipas had welcomed the positive support but said Greek fans needed to be more respectful of the opposition and stop acting like football fans.
"That's all. Nothing else. They can do what they're doing, but probably with more respect," he said.
Sakkari felt the fans during her match on Wednesday had been more than fair.
"They respected the opponent at the maximum. They were not disrespectful, they had stopped when they had to stop. They were not say yelling on her double faults or mistakes," she said.
"The only thing that they were yelling was 'break, break, break' but even Australians do it, Israelis do it, everyone does it."
Australian Associated Press
