Rowdy nationalistic tennis fans became the talk of the Australian Open after today’s second-round matches. Paul-Henri Mathieu facedoff against Amer Delic (an American of Bosnian descent), Croat Marin Cilic defeated Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, and Delic is slated to face off against Serbian Nole Djokovic in the succeeding round. The tension today was enough to spur Delic to post a message on his website urging his fans to keep politics out of the the tournament.

In the Cilic/Tipsarevic match, spectators “were a little bit incorrect,” said Janko, “singing songs that had nothing to do with tennis because of the history [both countries] have with each other. I think two or three times I even said to the Serbian crowd, don’t call [Marin] names. It’s OK to cheer for me but don’t say bad things about him.”

“What I liked and was surprised about was there was no clapping between the first and second serve or no mobile phones ringing at an important part.” Good point, Janko. I’d take aggro-but-considerate douchebags over inconsiderate WASPs any day of the week.

By the way, I’m going to throw my hat in the ring for Melbourne ground security next year. I’m prepared to rough some of these guys up if things get out of hand.

(photos by Getty Images)