Russian and Belarusian flags are banned from the tournament after a controversial incident earlier at Australian Open- a fan was recently denied entry.
A Serbian tennis fan was apparently denied entry with his country’s flag after the concerned officials mistook it for a Russian flag. The incident has caused outrage among Serbian fans on social media and the guards at Melbourne Park have been branded as ‘racist’. Footage of the incident has gone viral after a social media account posted a video of the encounter, in which fans who appear to be supporting Serbian players who were stopped by officials.
Earlier in the tournament, a rogue fan used a Russian flag to taunt Ukrainian player Kateryna Baindl during a match. This incident has led to a ban on the usage of Russian and Belarusian flags during the remainder of the tournament at Melbourne Park. The guards at the Australian Open have been strictly instructed to confiscate Russian and Belarusian flags and it has certainly left the officials confused as many flags look similar. In the video, a security guard can be seen flipping through a book that appears to contain pictures of many different flags. The matter was eventually resolved but it was certainly an embarrassing moment for everyone involved.
Fans react to Australian Open officials mistaking the Serbian flag to be a Russian one and denying entry to the fan
“Even so they’re being very disrespectful of the guy from the get go. Like yeah the guy should know the difference in flags and let the serbian flag in (which upon watching he does btw??) but the guys are immediately combative and condescending. No wonder the guy gets defensive”, wrote a fan.
“How could they confuse them? Serbian flag looks nothing like a plain white flag”, joked another fan.
“Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody has those days”, read a tweet from a considerate fan.
“Most of the staff at any sport event is outsourced, not really getting any proper training or at least guidance. So just an old grandpa who is not into flag differences or countries outside of his comfortable world, making extra cash. To be fair with you if you ask some people in russia, at Balcans what is the difference between flags of Australia and NZ, you might get wrong answers as well”, commented another fan.
Another fan wrote: “The guys are extremely disrespectful. They can just choose to let the guard make an excuse for his mistake and then walk away/let go of it, but instead they decide to heckle him repeatedly.”
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