PLAYERS have been complaining about distracting “party court” at the Australian Open – but fans cannot get enough of it.
A two-storey bar has been constructed on the eastern sideline for this year’s Australian Open tournament on court six.
ReutersThe introducion of a bar on court six has been a big hit with tennis punters[/caption]
ReutersA number of stars are already complaining about the new addition and the ‘rowdy’ crowd[/caption]
And after the addition by Tennis Australia, several stars have put in complaints about it.
Men’s No 7 seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas, is one of those to hit out at the boozed-up fans.
Then Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova claimed rowdy spectators were “meowing” at her as she lost to Paula Badosa on the court yesterday.
But those moaning have been told to get with the times and deal with the new expectations of fans by veteran Aussie tennis star John Millman.
The 34-year-old retired from singles after losing in the tournament qualifiers last week.
However, he won his first-round doubles encounter alongside Edward Winter against Marcus Daniell and Marcelo Demoliner in a rain-interrupted match.
Following the weather delay, the final set tie-break was met with a huge thunder of noise from the spectators in attendance, who had clearly used the new facilities during the break and were continuing to enjoy drinks from their seats.
Millman said: “I think they spent the delays having a few drinks because it was pretty rowdy, they started to get really into it.
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“It’s a sign that the times are changing a little bit. It’s high entertainment, the consumers and the patrons are the ones that are paying the bills and I think the players have got to live with it.”
Millman added: “It’s just the reality of playing tennis in this day and age. It’s gonna be a bit more wild than it used to be.
“It’s definitely a lot more wild than what it was when I first started playing but it’s a lot of fun.”
Tsitsipas had slammed the changes – such as the bar and allowing spectators more opportunities to come and go during breaks between games – as being hugely distracting to players.
He said: “You don’t know until you’re a tennis player, when you’re trying to zone in, get in the zone, it’s difficult when you see movement and when you see stuff happening around you.”
But there was bad news for him and the other unhappy stars as Tennis Australia chief executive, Craig Tiley, explained previously that it is “a model we’d like to expand across the site in future”.