By YASMIN SYED
09:41, Sat, Jan 27, 2024 | UPDATED: 10:10, Sat, Jan 27, 2024
There was a brief disturbance in the Australian Open women's final on Saturday as protestors started chanting "Free Palestine" while Qinwen Zheng was trying to serve against Aryna Sabalenka. The umpire asked the 12th seed to hold off as security quickly intervened, allowing play to resume.
Two protesters waved a Palestinian flag and called out "Free Palestine", prompting Zheng and Sabalenka to look up at what the disturbance was. Zheng held off serving for a few seconds as security raced to stop the disruption.
"The crowd aren't very happy about the disturbance. It seems like we're going to have to deal with this, I can see some security involved," Jo Durie said on commentary. Naomi Cavaday replied: "They can't play until this is dealt with. There are some people being removed which sounds like they are being dealt with swiftly. Oh no, here we go. This is so hard for the players, right in the middle of their concentration zones." When play quickly resumed within a couple of minutes, Durie added: "It's a good job from the security for sorting that sharpish."
It's not the first time that a protestor has been removed from the stands this fortnight. A spectator started throwing Free Palestine flyers onto the Margaret Court arena during Cameron Norrie's fourth-round match against Alexander Zverev. It took a few minutes for ballkids and court staff to tidy them away while security failed to get involved, with fellow spectators taking matters into their own hands and removing the protestor from the stands.
"Obviously we're both aware. We had to stop the match for a few moments. I didn't feel threatened or anything. It is what it is. Those things happen nowadays," Norrie later said.
"I think there were a couple of fans that actually helped out. But yeah, I don't think anyone felt threatened or anything. Yeah, it was all right. I managed to hold my serve that game, so yeah."
Meanwhile, Zverev slammed security for failing to act fast - something they corrected in time for the women's final. He said: "I think when something like this happens, it shouldn't be another fan dragging the other person out. It should be the security guys that should be there quite quickly. It shouldn't take them three, four minutes, that long."
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/tennis/1860366/Australian-Open-final-protest-Aryna-Sabalenka-Qinwen-Zheng
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