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| MELBOURNE (AFP) - First it was fighting fans, then the searing heat and to cap it off a five-year-old boy was sexually assualted and it was kept quiet. Week one of the Australian Open did not go to plan for organisers and they will be hoping week two gets better. "We've had a few challenges," admitted Tennis Australia chief executive Steve Wood after controversy overshadowed the tennis. "But I think we've got a great reputation around the world. We are known as the Happy Slam." The phrase was coined by Roger Federer in his opening press conference on the first Sunday, but it was anything but jolly the following day. Never before has hooliganism hit a tennis tournament in the way it did on the first day of action last Monday. Around 150 brawling Serb and Croat fans were ejected after taunting and hurling insults at each other. Witnesses said kicks and punches were flying and they used flagpoles, bottles and chairs in an ugly ethnic melee. Police presence was increased the following day and any repeat was nipped in the bud. But not before the news was sent around the world by the large contingent of foreign press here and the Open's reputation took a hit. Victoria state police acting superintendent Chris Duthie conceded his officers were caught off guard. "Certainly we have never had this sort of behaviour at the tennis before," he said. "I wouldn't say (we were) underdone, but we had sufficient police resources for a normal Australian Open tennis match -- this was something out of the ordinary." As the melee died down, the sun came out and the temperatures soared to 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), getting some players hot under the collar. The extreme heat rule came into effect, halting play on outside courts but not in the main stadia where regulations state the matches underway must be finished. In disturbing scenes women's top seed Maria Sharapova wilted and said she was "delusional" while on another court Serbian Janko Tipsarevic withered and retired, saying he felt "incredible exhaustion". Another player, Frenchman Julien Benneteau, lost consciousness. "When I went into the dressing room, the tournament doctor used a drip to hydrate me. I fell asleep, but the doctor shook me and said 'Stay with us'. He was quiet scared." WTA boss Larry Scott described the scenes as "troubling" and expressed his concern to organisers, who caved in and agreed to review the heat rule for next year's tournament. As if that wasn't enough a young boy was sexually assaulted in a toilet cubicle at Rod Laver Arena on Monday and organisers remained silent about it until Friday, when media were tipped off. Wood said they kept quiet on police advice and that "the welfare of our patrons has always been a top priority". But child welfare officials said it was an error of judgement and parents were quoted in local media as being outraged. Controversy also raged over the HawkEye digital technology being used here for the first time at the Rod Laver Arena which Federer described as "a nonsense." Nonsense was a word liberally used by Marat Safin after being forced to play on Friday on a court he felt was still slippery after rain, which also hit the tournament hard on Saturday. "I was so disappointed with the officials. They have been so pathetic on this subject. It was a joke," fumed the Russian. Add in a man arrested for allegedly using a digital camera to film up women's skirts and the air-conditioning breaking down on centre court and it was a week troubled organisers will want to forget. |