Tennis: Triumph over taunts

Shahar Peer salutes the crowd inside the Stanley St tennis centre. Photo / Getty Images

Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer admitted yesterday it was difficult "emotionally" to listen to protesters chanting her name in contempt, but has vowed to keep playing better at the ASB Classic tennis tournament in defiance.

Five pro-Palestinian activists, including John Minto, will face obstruction and disorderly behaviour charges after being arrested outside the Stanley St tennis centre in central Auckland yesterday.

"It's not easy to hear someone shouting your name and asking you to go away and withdraw from the tournament," Peer, 22, said. "It is very hard emotionally, but I'm trying to avoid it."

The chanting and whistling, which at times were clearly audible on court, seem to have affected Peer's opponents more than her.

"It does make me play better," she said.

Peer, who has rapidly become a crowd favourite, will play in the quarter-finals at noon today against No 3 seed Yanina Wickmayer after easily winning her third-round match against Russian Maria Kirilenko.

Minto said he was not supposed to be within 500m of the venue today but he would "play a part in the protest, one way or another".

The demonstrators are railing against Israel's treatment of Palestinians and have targeted Peer.

Yesterday, they numbered around 20 and police were called after complaints from tennis spectators. One of those arrested tried to escape by climbing a tree. Minto called the police response an "orchestrated over-reaction" and said he would defend the charges in court on Tuesday.

"What we were doing was not disrupting the tennis. It may have been annoying to some of the patrons, but annoyance is not a crime."

Tennis Auckland chief executive Greig Bramwell said he was disappointed the protests were continuing because they were affecting the enjoyment of the crowd, who had paid money to watch tennis.

"If they complain to us about the noise and the disruption ... we report that to the police. Then it's up to the police to take action as they see fit."