Marcos Baghdatis in the dock as Greek rowdies join gambling as a menace to tennis

Your comment on the north part of Cyprus viewed as occupation by the Turks says all. Viewd as illegal? Is that how australians,you british,viewed as. Shame on you again you greek haters.

Hi Steve, Sportingo edited out my comments of support for the Cypriots. In my original post I said: "And anyway, I agree with the Cypriots, the Turks should leave Cyprus." On the other hand, Steve, if you have a passionate argument about an important issue, name calling is ineffective at best. If you believe the Turks should leave, make an argument for that. You'll get a lot more support when people understand the issues than if you call them names. It's dumbing down. You have a responsibility to do better than that.

There needs to be some corrections in your article Nina Rota. The crowd was not "so unruly police needed to use pepper spray". One man refused to leave, because he did not believe he had done anything wrong. A single police officer attempted to evict him, but when faced with the refusal and question of what for, he retreated. He came back with almost 10 officers, and they then pepper sprayed a couple of people. Pepper spray was not intended to be used in this manner. The crowd was not violent. Police actions forced a temporary halt to play for 10 minutes. As for the video in question, which is almost a year old now(its from the 2007 open), there is no actual proof in that video, that Marcos Bagdahtis says "Turks out of Cyprus". And if he did, it is not something offensive. "Turks out of Cyprus" is an old saying from Cyprus, from 1974 when Turkey invaded. It refers ONLY to the Turkish military and settlers(settlers intended to change the demographics of the island, against the Geneva convention). There is U

There is United Nations resolutions which state the occupation is ILLEGAL. It is not viewed only by the south, which is called the Republic of Cyprus, Nina, and is recognised by every country on earth except Cyprus. The occupation is viewed as just that, an occupation of a sovereign nations territory, by the entire planet, except the Turks. The whole thing is a beat up by the media in Australia anyhow. It was designed to unsettle the Cypriot player, as he was playing the sole Australian left in the Open on home soil. They fed it to the Turkish community here, and sadly, the Turkish community leaders ate it up hook line and sinker, and made a negative comment, thus giving the media outlets fuel to spin a controversy were none existed nor should it have. It is typical of our media here in Australia to play dirty games like this when our sports stars are facing a tough match. We are a young nation, who have yet to learn to be fair and gracious sports men and women, whether we lose win or draw. What is worse

What is worse is the false reporting in some over seas articles on the issue. From outright half truths to complete fabrications. On the issue of drunken behaviour. Many of our sports venues are only interested in one thing, making as much profit as they can. They sell alcohol till the very end of an event, sometimes even after the game has finished, bars will still be open. What they need to do is to stop selling alcohol at least an hour befor the end of a game, or have some sort of system with peoples tickets/passes, to limit the amount of alcohol served. Or, pure and simple, bar staff should do their job as they are trained, and not sell to intoxicated people. Another thing which would help is to stop selling 4-5 beers to single people to "take to their friends".

It is totally wrong to say that Turkey invaded Cyprus. Turkey came to the rescue of the Turkish Cypriots 11 years too late when they landed in Cyprus in 1974. Every Turkish Cypriot lived and hoped that Turkey would intervene in Cyprus after the horrific events of 1963. The Greek murderers were men enough to kill young and old, men and women and for 11 years they had it their way. Until Turkey did the right thing and saved the Turkish Cypriots from mass murder by blood thirsty EOKA murderers. I wouldn't be writing this if it hadn't been for the Turkish army. Thank god for Turkey.

Hi Brett, You did read my comment to Steve, right? Where I said the following: Sportingo edited out my comments of support for the Cypriots. In my original post I said: "And anyway, I agree with the Cypriots, the Turks should leave Cyprus." If a fan is asked to leave a stadium when a police officer asks them to, that is resisting arrest. If you read my article, I said that it was inappropriate to use pepper spray but it is also highly unlikely they used it without provocation. If other fans joined in with the original fan, that is unruly behavior and will get them arrested. I've no doubt that the media was trying to support Hewitt against Baghdatis but the video was newsworthy because one of the fan who was arrested is in the video. That kind of thing will always find its way into the media. I agree with you, Brett, the flow of alcohol should stop before the match but I also have to say that I'm sad that this kind of thing has migrated towards tennis. It hasn't been much of a problem before and now it is.

I read all the articles and i agree with Brett. The Australian media jumped into the opportunity to tear Baghatis apart and upset him psychologically because he was up to face an Australian opponent. Marcos is half lebanese and half greek cypriot, raised in multicultural france and is very tolerant and open and nowhere close to be a racist. Turks out of cyprus over here (greece & Cyprus) is used to refer to the turkish troops that occupy the north part of the island. You try to be objective Nina but the line you use and i quote "is viewed as an illegal occupation force by the Greek south" is completly out of line for the reasons Bret gave already. Marcos never intented to be political, he only expressed his feelings about the problem in his country in a private event. This was exploited by the media branding him anti-turk and all sorts. Its really unfair and i believe if all these wouldnt take place Marcos would have beat Leyton. The "good" blood thirsty journalists made sure this wouldnt happen.

I wonder why they edited out your comments Nina.

After reading several comments, I have come to understand 1 thing. We are going away from the real issue. This is a sporting event, not a forum for historial issue. There is not place for either the players or the fans to bring their personnal cramp to the table. Just watch the show. If you do not like what you see or hear, easy turn off the TV or walk away. Be the bigger person, that is how things will change not in fighting.

Thanks for all of your comments. I imagine Sportingo edited by comments to avoid the political back and forth you see in the comments here. Personally I welcome it because it helps me understand the issues. But you're right, a tennis stadium is not the place to express them. I've been to a lot of Davis Cup matches and there has always been a lot of partisan support for both countries, it's just that people don't bring politics into it. I understand the fight last year between Serb and Croat fans, you can't expect people to get over carnage like that in a few years. But I don't think either group came to the tournament looking for a fight. Practically speaking, curbs on alcohol sales seems like the first solution and quicker and more effective response by security is the second. Hopefully tennis will grow in popularity - over half a million spectators so far at the Australian Open - and we'll get better at handling it.

to say that Baghdatis's chants were rascist is completly false. he was simply defending his country and chanting his political beliefs. As for the pepper spray incident, i was not there myself howver i am a member of that group. the media seem to manipulate things against 'wogs' time and time again. The police were way too heavy handed in my opinion and the media blew the incident up to a world wide scale , in which reality speaking was only a minor incident.