Australian Open organisers say they are prepared for crowd trouble at this week’s season-opening grand slam after ugly scenes marred the previous two tournaments.

Tournament director Craig Tiley said security would adopt a zero-tolerance approach to unruly spectators in a bid to avoid a repeat of the scenes that have tarnished the Open’s reputation as the “Happy Slam”.

Tiley said security would not be stepped up in the wake of the problems experienced in 2007 and 2008 because organisers were confident existing measures were sufficient.

“We have full faith in the security team, they’re very well trained and prepared for anything that may occur,” he said.

The crowd problems, unheard of at any of the other tennis grand slams, have been an unwelcome distraction for Australian Open organisers in recent years.

Ethnic violence erupted on the opening day of the 2007 tournament when Serbian and Croatian fans, wearing the national colours of the bitter Balkan rivals, attacked each other with flagpoles, bottles and boots.

Then last year, police used pepper spray to subdue rowdy elements of the crowd watching a match between Konstantinos Economidis of Greece and Chile’s Fernando Gonzales.

The unprecedented use of the debilitating spray came after police said they were physically threatened by members of the crowd.

Tiley said the crowd problems were caused by a tiny minority and Australian Open organisers wanted to make it clear that loutish behaviour would not be tolerated.

“The unfortunate thing is that of the 605,000 fans that came to the tennis last year there were 10 unruly fans,” he said.

“We have zero tolerance to anyone who comes on site with the specific objective of disrupting the enjoyment of other fans.

“If they are going to be disruptive, they’re going to be immediately ejected. That’s the strong message that we’re sending out publicly and I think everyone’s got that.”

© AFP 2012

Enjoy sports? Enjoy a bargain? All Sports Online has your favourite sporting brands at up to 70% off. Online only, premium quality sporting goods and merchandise at discounted prices. Get a deal now.