Ugly moment a vicious brawl breaks out in the stands at the Australian Open just minutes before Nick Kyrgios enters court
- Two men broke out into fist fight ahead of Nick Kyrgios’s third round on Saturday
- The two men punched on in the middle of the crowd before security stepped in
- One of the men was escorted out of the arena as crowd chanted, ‘out, out, out’
A vicious fist-fight broke out at the Australian Open between two spectators before Nick Kyrgios entered the arena.
The altercation occurred just before 7pm on Saturday at Melbourne Arena ahead of Kyrgios’s third round against Russian Karen Khachanov.
Footage shows two audience members throwing punches at each other in the middle of the stands as spectators watch on.
One witness said they were an Australian and a Russian.
As they continued to punch-on, several audience members tried to hold them apart
As they fought, several audience members tried to hold them apart before three security men attended.
One of the men was then escorted from the arena as the crowd chanted, ‘out, out, out’.
The crowd could then be heard boo-ing the man out of the arena.
Security attended the altercation and escorted one of the men (in the red shirt) out of the arena
‘It was a bit of a punch-on,’ witness Alex Nikolaou told Herald Sun.
‘I don’t know what started it. All I heard was screaming across the court.
‘There were all these people trying to separate the two.’
Tennis Australia is investigating the incident.
Melbourne Arena is the biggest ground in the Australian Open and was at full capacity ahead of Kyrgios’s third match.
‘This crowd is electrified. That was like a rock star on stage when Nick came on,’ Channel 9’s Jim Courier said.
‘And when Karen came on, the crowd went mild. This will be a high energy building and if Nick can get off to a good start, it’s a good thing they have the roof open tonight.’
Melbourne Arena is the biggest ground in the Australian Open and was at full capacity ahead of Kyrgios’s third match