Another day of 30-plus temperatures, another day on which the sponsor's beer was available in the grounds much too early, another mix of bad ethnic blood and an outcome that has become all rather inevitable and tiresome at a grand slam tennis tournament that prides itself on being the people's event. In the past three years here, we have had batons raised, pepper spray sprayed and now chairs tossed.

When a simple tennis match can inflame tensions to the extent that chairs and plastic cups fly through the air, scuffling fans are ejected, children frightened and ordinary supporters forced to cower, then at the very least a ban on alcohol before a certain time of the day should be introduced. But when one of the event's major sponsors is a well known beer product and such support brings in a lot of dollars, it is difficult to square the circle.

All that Amer Delic and Novak Djokovic were doing was engaging in a grand slam match of excellent shots, moments of laughter and the odd flash of anger, which ended with the players in a bear hug at the net. Delic, an American of Bosnian descent said that he was very sad to hear of the disturbances that sullied its aftermath. "There is absolutely no place for that here," he said. "This is a tennis match. Novak and I are competitors, but we are also friends, it was a fair match. I don't know who started it (the fighting), I'm sure there were guys on both sides who wanted to cause problems. It is like that everywhere in the world. I don't know what else I can say. You can't stop and control everybody."

Djokovic, the defending champion from Serbia, won the match in four sets but that was too much for those who had bellowed their support for Delic and when the two sets of 'supporters' mingled in the opens spaces of Melbourne Park as they spilled from the court, so malevolence reared its shocking head again.

The Victoria police had warned of a zero tolerance approach to any trouble and their response - instant ejections, hefty fines and future bans from the premises - is to be applauded. But by midday yesterday it was clear that a large number of youths had been drinking heavily. The conclusion is inevitable. Find a water company that wants to sponsor tennis.