The tennis Australian Open was accompanied by provocations by Russian fans who violated the ban on state symbols and openly supported the invasion of Ukraine in Melbourne. The incidents also affected Novak Djokovic, now a ten-time champion of the tournament, whose father Srdjan preferred to be absent from the audience in the final two duels.
The Russian crowd in Melbourne made no bones about the ban on displaying the Russian and Belarusian flags, the main incident taking place during the quarter-finals between Djokovic and Rublev. Fans in the area waved Russian flags, a portrait of President Vladimir Putin, one of them even had the ultra-nationalist Z symbol on his T-shirt. They hailed Russia and chanted, “Long live Tsar Putin!”
“This was already a complete package. Russian flags, Putin, Z symbols, the flag of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic. Such a shame,” commented the Ukrainian ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko, whose intervention at the beginning of the tournament was behind the fact that the organizers decided to ban Russian state symbols .
Although security in Melbourne had a manual with a list of signs with which fans were not allowed to enter the venue, they were still unable to prevent an international scandal.
However, Russian propaganda praises the performance at the season’s opening Grand Slam. Simeon Bojkov, one of the leaders of the pro-Russian provocations, was given space on local television in recent days.
“It was our duty here to do a little local special operation to annoy our enemies,” he said in a video interview. Putin’s regime refers to the invasion of Ukraine as a “special operation”.
The controversial Bojkov lives in Australia, where an arrest warrant has been issued for him for assault. According to local media, he is hiding in the Russian consulate over the matter and has not appeared in court in Sydney. On the screens of Russian television, however, he praised how the Australian Open took place from the Russian point of view.
“We managed to fulfill our goals. We showed the Russian spirit. We will not be stopped, it is impossible to silence us. We will never hide our state symbols,” Boykov added.
He also used the Srdjan Djokovic case for propaganda. The father of the tennis icon got involved with a group of Russian fans in the complex last week, posed with them and, according to initial speculation, declared: “Long live the Russian people.”
“He refused to apologize for it and instead decided to boycott the semi-finals and finals,” said Bojkov.
Djokovic’s father reacted differently. He denied supporting Russia and clearly declared in his statement that he was against Russian aggression. “I just went out to celebrate with the fans, I do that after every son’s game. I didn’t mean for this to happen,” he noted.
According to his son, the recent holder of 22 Grand Slam titles, the whole incident was misinterpreted.
“My father, my whole family and myself went through several wars in the 1990s. We are against war and would never support any violence or war,” said the native of Belgrade.
