Australian fans show their support for Thanasi Kokkinakis against British player Jack Draper on day four of the 2025 Australian Open. Photo / Getty Images
Australian fans show their support for Thanasi Kokkinakis against British player Jack Draper on day four of the 2025 Australian Open. Photo / Getty Images
Opinion
THREE KEY FACTS
Novak Djokovic faced boos at the Australian Open, highlighting rowdy fan behaviour.
Despite complaints, many argue the lively atmosphere adds to the event’s appeal.
Record attendance figures suggest the Melbournetournament’s popularity continues to grow.
“Is the ‘Happy Slam’ becoming the crappy slam?” So asked one Aussie comrade from the press room after Novak Djokovic had shuffled off Rod Laver Arena to the accompaniment of boos.
In the minds of many locals, the rowdy behaviour of the Australian Open’s fans reflects poorly on the nation as a whole.
Even before the latest Djokovic flashpoint, we have had Danielle Collins clapping back at the hecklers, Harriet Dart complaining that “I felt like I was at a football match”, and one second-round contest being moved to avoid noise pollution from Melbourne Park’s notorious “Party Court”.
My reply? “Lighten up!” Sport is supposed to be fun. No one here is trying to master cold fusion or cure monkeypox. And despite the occasional yell in the middle of a service action, it is not as if the local larrikins – to borrow the Aussie term for cheeky characters – are genuinely putting anyone off their game.
In the case of Djokovic’s retirement after a single set of his semifinal, the booing might have been unfortunate, but it stemmed from the unpreparedness of the crowd for the sudden handshake.
Had Djokovic gone through the usual rigmarole of medical timeouts and changeover treatments, everyone would have been much more understanding. They were just caught on the hop by the way Djokovic slugged out “a high-level set” – in the words of his opponent Alexander Zverev – then charged off the court like a man who wanted to catch the 6pm showing of Wicked.
There was no real malice here, just as there was none in Tony Jones’ attempted satire on the Serbian fans (which annoyed Djokovic so much last week), nor in the occasionally awkward on-court interviews which semifinalist Ben Shelton has described as “disrespectful”. Like I say, lighten up, everyone.
The fans at Melbourne Park are just trying to have a good day out. By and large, they are succeeding. This is a magnificent event, the most far-sighted of the four majors, and its ambition is reflected in the attendance figures. Ten of the first 12 days drew record crowd numbers, including more than 97,000 on the first Friday, the highest number ever recorded at a tennis tournament.
Novak Djokovic celebrates victory against Carlos Alcaraz in their quarter-final on Tuesday. Photo / Getty Images
Returning to the rowdies, it is not as if the Australian Open is an outlier. The US Open’s fans were recently described as “feral” by no less an authority than the New York Post. Meanwhile, at last year’s French Open, tournament director Amélie Mauresmo instituted a booze ban after Belgium’s David Goffin claimed to have had chewing gum spat at him from the stands. “Soon there will be smoke bombs, hooligans and fights in the stands,” complained Goffin after this unpleasant incident, which was an outlier even by modern standards.
Wimbledon only major to retain decorum
In fact, Wimbledon is the only one of the four majors to retain any vestige of tennis’s long-lost decorum. And even there, Nick Kyrgios had a bust-up in 2023 with a fan he described as “drunk out of her mind”.
For an ex-player’s perspective, let’s turn to 1997-98 US Open champion Pat Rafter, who is known for being one of the gentlemen of the game. “They’re getting rowdier, there’s no doubt about it,” the Australian replied, when asked about the circus that surrounded Jack Draper’s second-round match against home favourite Thanasi Kokkinakis.
“Tennis never used to be like that. Is it for the better? Is that what tennis needs? Players of my generation, we would have found it really difficult to play in. But these kids have seen it all before, and that’s the way the world is going.”
Rafter is right about the younger players, who generally prefer an overexcited crowd to a flat one. “I enjoy it, to be honest,” said Draper, of the hooting and jeering that greeted his missed serves against Kokkinakis. “It’s entertainment [and] it gave me a lot of energy. I appreciate that.”
In the end, it is unsustainable for tennis to preserve itself in aspic as some kind of heritage sport. Perhaps that might work for Wimbledon, for a while. But even there, traditional values will come to be seen as old-fashioned in the end.
Much of the sensitivity around tennis stems from its origins as an upper-middle-class sport, played on vicarage lawns by ladies in crinolines. But reality has long been far earthier than perception.
Tennis’s popularity boomed in the 1980s, the decade when John McEnroe was getting defaulted and Jimmy Connors was making obscene gestures with his racket handle. Meanwhile, crowds in the Davis Cup – the oldest team event in sport – have been flinging verbal brickbats for decades. It all adds colour and vibrancy, not to mention economic sustainability, to a sport which remains a niche pursuit in many areas of the world.
So unless a crowd interferes with a player by deliberately putting them off, or outrages basic hygiene and decency by spitting gum, I cannot see where the harm is. The fans have paid their money. They deserve to have their say.
