ROME (AP) - The International Tennis Federation will check on security arrangements but does not expect to change plans for the Davis Cup final in Serbia following the violence by Serbian soccer fans in Italy.
France will play Serbia for the title Dec. 3-5 in Belgrade. Serbia will be led by No. 2-ranked Novak Djokovic, who was upset by the scenes in Genoa.
“It’s really not nice to see, definitely,” Djokovic said Thursday. “Especially for the people coming from Serbia, we really didn’t like the picture that we saw that day.”
“As an athlete, I definitely feel bad for the players because I know they wanted to play badly that game, and it was an important game,” he added. “But it wasn’t in their hands, it wasn’t in their power.”
ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti said that France has not made any special requests since Tuesday’s European Championship qualifier between Italy and Serbia was called off.
Serbian fans threw flares and fireworks onto the field, burned a flag and broke barriers, leading to eight arrests in Italy and 19 in Serbia.
Serbian officials said the fans in Genoa belonged to the same far-right groups that clashed with police in Belgrade last Sunday while trying to disrupt a gay pride parade, leaving more than 150 people injured and causing widespread damage.
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