Moment man is chucked out of the Australian Open after appearing to ambush champion Jannik Sinner
- The incident was captured on camera
- It happened when the worldwide broadcast started
- Two officials had to intervene
A global audience watched the Australian Open on Sunday just in time to see a selfie-hungry fan stripped of his login details and thrown out of the tournament.
The fan managed to get very close to eventual champion Jannik Sinner just before his epic five-set win over Russian Daniil Medvedev at Melbourne Park before officials intervened.
The timing was unfortunate: the scene was captured by Australian Open cameras just as global broadcast for the men’s final began.
Sinner was zipping up his jacket and inspecting his racket bag when he heard a voice nearby.
The man then appeared on camera, positioned himself against a partition wall and asked for a selfie, to which Sinner initially agreed.
Sinner was only too happy to sign autographs and pose for selfies after the Australian Open final concluded
Thousands of Australians and Italian expats cheered Sinner on as he won his first grand slam
The officers approached the man, with the first trying unsuccessfully to remove him from the scene.
Then security intervened, ripped the man’s credentials from his neck, shook his head and then marched him away from the tennis star.
Commentator Mark Petchey had just gone live and reported the incident on air.
“Hello and welcome everyone to today’s men’s final of the Australian Open,” he said.
‘And there is one of the men of the moment and everyone wants to have their picture taken with him before the final, because he might emerge as champion, Jannik Sinner.’
The man just smiled when security approached him for getting too close to Sinner
Things got very serious, very quickly when the man was stripped of his accreditation and kicked out of the area
Fortunately, the incident had little impact on the 22-year-old star, although he did drop the first two sets against Medvedev before rallying to claim a memorable title win.
Sinner enjoyed huge support from Australians of Italian descent and was more than happy to sign autographs and pose for selfies after the match.
“It’s the happy slam, it’s a really, really fun place to be,” Sinner said.
‘In Europe it snows and where my parents are it is minus 20 degrees in the morning, so here it is better to run in the sun.
‘It’s obviously a huge tournament for me, I want to thank everyone who made this slam so special.’