Tennis: Ivanisevic pays the penalty for bad behaviour

GORAN IVANISEVIC, the top seed, displayed the dark side of his nature as he went out of the Australian Indoor Championship in Sydney in the first round yesterday.

The defending champion, Jaime Yzaga of Peru, also lost, in three sets to Aaron Krickstein, but the second seed, Boris Becker, went through after dropping a set against the Australian qualifier, Sandon Stolle.

Ivanisevic was fined dollars 1,500 ( pounds 1,000) for swearing at a spectator, threw his racket to the ground and argued repeatedly with officials during his 7-6, 6-3 defeat by the unseeded American Richey Reneberg.

The Croatian world No 2 stormed off court at the end and appeared to spit on the ground. He then refused to appear at the post-match press conference, prompting an automatic dollars 1,000 fine.

'By the middle of the first set, I sensed he did not really have his mind on the match,' Reneberg said.