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Men's Tennis
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Women's Tennis
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| Tuesday, January 23 |
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| Teen-ager detained by Aussie police Associated Press | |||
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MELBOURNE, Australia -- Anna Kournikova's doubles match
Monday in the Australian Open was briefly interrupted when a
15-year-old boy threw a smoking flare on the court.
The boy was immediately apprehended by security staff at
Melbourne Park and will be interviewed by police, Tennis Australia
publicity manager Lysette Shaw said.
The first set of the third-round match featuring Kournikova and
Barbara Schett against Japanese pair Shinobu Asagoe and Yuka
Yoshida was delayed for 12 minutes.
Tournament referee Peter Bellenger inspected the court and
interviewed the players, chair umpire and officials before allowing
the match to continue. Stadium staff repainted a patch of the court
surface where the flare landed.
At the time, Kournikova and Schett were trailing 2-5 in the
first. Far from being distracted, the third-seeded pair said they
used the break to refocus. They rallied to win 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
None of the players was in the vicinity of the projectile, which
had orange smoke billowing from one end, when it landed about a
yard from the net.
"The players got a bit of a fright ... the players weren't
distraught, they were a little bit shaken up, but they were fine to
continue playing," Shaw said.
Kournikova was hitting the ball and said she didn't see the
flare land. Schett said she could tell from the look on Asagoe's
face that something bizarre was happening.
"It was strange. I just saw Asagoe's face, she opened her eyes
real big," the Austrian said. "I was like, 'What's going on? Why
is she making a face like that?' Then I saw the thing coming into
the court. Everything was orange."
Kournikova and Schett both said they were not scared.
"It wasn't a bomb or anything," Schett said.
The pair laughed off the incident, Kournikova recalling the only
similar previous interruption to one of her matches was last year
at Wimbledon when a male streaker ran onto the court.
The 19-year-old Russian said security was generally good at
Melbourne Park and she didn't have any concerns.
"Everything is fine. I think the fans here a really friendly,"
she said.
Shaw said organizers had reviewed security at Melbourne Park
after an animal rights activist invaded center court last year
during the men's final between Andre Agassi and Yevgeny Kafelnikov.
"Last year we had a situation and we reviewed security. We'll
do the same again," Shaw said.
Security personnel do not conduct routine bag searches, and
spectators are allowed to take food and drinks into Melbourne Park.
The existing policy will be reviewed, but not immediately changed
"We don't want to react to a one-off situation," Shaw said.
"We've improved security and we'll review this and decide."
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AUDIO/VIDEO   Anna Kournikova's doubles match gets interrupted.avi: 940 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1   Anna Kournikova was not frightened by the flare that was thrown on the court.wav: 221 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 | |
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