Australian Open crowd 'meow' at Russian tennis star - leaving her 'disturbed'
Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova took issue with the crowd at the Australian Open after they “started to scream and meow” at her.
Pavlyuchenkova saw her hopes in Melbourne ended by Paula Badosa on the partisan Court 6, which has begun grabbing plenty of headlines. In an effort to attract new fans and enhance viewer experience the Australian Open a two-storey Courtside Bar has been built.
It has led to a new type of atmosphere but the Russian, who lost 6-3, 6-2, has questioned the thought process behind introducing the bar and claimed she felt "disturbed" by some of the antics that took place on the outside court.
“It was super loud, like in the restaurant basically, people talking and eating and drinking. I don’t know if they even watched the match,” Pavlyuchenkova told inews.co.uk .
“There were a couple of guys, I think they got drunk and they started to scream and meow [at me], I think maybe because I have this tattoo on my leg [which reads meow] or just because of course they had some drinks and so it was really disturbing.
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“It was not nice to be honest. I was really annoyed at the start of the match. I have no problem playing on the outside courts, but this one was special in terms of the noise and also the court.”
The bar can accommodate more than 400 fans who are able drink, eat and listen to live DJs whilst they watch tennis, although Pavlyuchenkova herself was not convinced many seemed engaged in the tennis itself and maintained that the sport must maintain its values.
Paula Badosa got the better of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at the Australian OpenShe added: “I was actually thinking during the match ‘What was the idea behind it?’ Yeah okay, maybe of course, for the fans, it’s super fun for them. But tennis is a special sport in a way. It’s not like baseball, or other sports where you can eat and walk around, or like basketball. It is completely different. It’s very quiet in a way. So yeah, that was really uncomfortable.”
Petros Tsitsipas, brother of former Australian Open finalist Stefanos, played on double on the court before watching Badosa and too questioned it. “I actually was on that court yesterday. I was watching Paula play on that court. It’s a very weird concept, in my opinion,” he said.
Back in October, when the court was being redesigned, tournament Director Craig Tiley told foxsports : “I think the idea about the courtside bar is just it’s an elevated experience for our fans on all the courts”.
Another Russian, Pavel Vyacheslavovich Kotov, who won his first round match on Court 6 has also aired concerns. He likened it to playing in a nightclub with supporters jeering him every time he missed with a first serve.
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