Police, organisers on ethnic brawl alert

MELBOURNE, Jan 16 (Reuters) Police and Australian Open organisers were on high alert today amid fears ethnic clashes between Serbs and Croats that marred the opening day of the grand slam could erupt again.

Serbia's Ilia Bozoljac and Croatian Marin Cilic are scheduled to play a first-round match later on day two and there are fears it could set the scene for a repeat of the soccer-style brawls that stained Melbourne Park.

It was the first time such violence had flared in more than 100 years of grand slam tennis history.

Heavy security is expected around the outside court when the potential flashpoint match takes place after thugs vowed to renew hostilities for the second day running.

''We'll definitely be here... we're coming back,'' a Serbian supporter clad in his national colours was quoted as saying in today's edition of the Herald Sun newspaper.

About 150 fans were evicted from the Melbourne Park grounds on Monday after fighting flared between rival Croat and Serb supporters.

Police, who admit they were surprised by the scale of Monday's incident, said extra manpower would be in place when the match takes place on court 21 later on Tuesday.

BOTTLES THROWN ''Certainly we have never had this sort of behaviour at the tennis before,'' acting superintendent Chris Duthie said in a television interview.

''I wouldn't say (we were) underdone, but we had sufficient police resources for a normal Australian Open tennis match.

''This was something out of the ordinary. I can assure you, though, that we will not have that problem again.'' Police made no arrests despite the scuffles and organisers admitted that they had no way of preventing the fans from returning to the tournament.

''We will monitor them and if we feel there are any issues arising, we will take appropriate action,'' Open spokesman John Lindsay said.

''It's the first time we've had an incident of this nature...

we're going to keep a close eye on everyone but we're not going to judge every fan on the basis of a few.'' In scenes reminiscent of clashes between warring soccer fans, insults were exchanged between the rival fractions before the violence escalated to bottles being thrown, and kicks and punches being traded.

Reuters PM GC0944