Dads and mums. It was another day in the women's event when tennis was pushed to the back court and parents and players showed what a drag they can be. Crazy, weird tennis.
As unseeded Jelena Dokic moved into the third round of the championship, beating Spaniard Gala Leon Garcia 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, her father, Damir, was again covering old ground. Dokic was led away by policemen from the press bar of the new Wimbledon Millennium building late yesterday afternoon for what was thought to be drunk and disorderly conduct.
With the St George flag draped across his shoulders, Dokic was seen to thump glass panels and was heard shouting: "The Queen's side of the country is beautiful, the facist side isn't." In a rambling and apparently drunken diatribe, Dokic also attacked the WTA, declaring them "criminal and politic". According to Sky Sports presenter Mark Saggers, Dokic was complaining about the treatment his daughter was receiving from the WTA. Saggers subsequently made an offer to allow Dokic to air his grievances in front of the Sky cameras.
At that stage Dokic asked to borrow a cell phone from Saggers in order to make a call to America. Saggers said that he handed the phone over before Dokic threw the phone across the bar, smashing it into pieces.
In an effort to pacify Saggers, Dokic's wife Liliana was then seen to take an American Express card from her purse and hand it to her husband. Saggers, according to a sports writer for the London Times, said: "No, I want cash." The policeman then arrived to remove Dokic from the building.
A statement issued by the Metropolitan Police Service said: "Mr Dokic was talking to members of the press on level three of the Millennium Building. During the discussion a mobile phone was broken and an allegation made. Mr Dokic came to the police room voluntarily while the matter was being investigated. No action was taken and the Dokic family elected to leave the grounds. No further action will be taken."
It's not the first time Dokic has been in trouble with the police. Last year in Birmingham he was arrested when he disrupted traffic after drinking heavily during a tournament in which his daughter was involved.
Following the Dokic incident, Alexandra Stevenson made serious allegations against two players after going out of the tournament.
Having already spoken generally about racist taunts in the game, she referred to a player who called her "a piece of shit black girl". Stevenson went on to say that another player hit her mother, Samantha, and pulled a hat she was wearing down the front of her face.
"(The first player) called me the names and (the second player) hit my mom in Strasbourg," said Stevenson. "In the French, (the second player) came up and hit me . . . kind of bumped me in the locker-room. (The first player) is a little shorter than me. She kind of just ran the other way. I had a match so I didn't do anything."
Neither of the two players were available for comment.
It was also the day that the WTA extended their ban on allowing non-players into the women's locker-room. The ban was seen as being aimed at mothers but the WTA denied this was the motive.
To cap the day, French Open champion and third seed Mary Pierce went out 7-6 (7-5), 7-6(74) to 49th ranked Spaniard Magui Serna.
