Raven Rod, smash and grab and write stuff

Rod Laver brushes aside the bird nuisance at Melbourne Park, something positive comes out of Marcos Baghdatis' racquet rage and Caroline Wozniacki receives an honour.

Rod's raven mad

Circling flocks of seagulls are a perennial pest at Melbourne Park's night matches, prompting calls to use eagles to scare them away. But Aussie great Rod Laver prefers a less drastic solution - ravens. "Like my son said, we need a couple of ravens up there just to scare them off," he said. Laver, the last man to win tennis's grand slam, said players should simply put up with the avian annoyance. "It's just like at Forest Hills (the former home of the US Open). There was a train that ran right beside the courts. It makes a hell of a noise. If you're on an outside court, you almost have to stop," he said. "That's a distraction as well. So just put up with it. Your concentration has to be better than the birds floating around up there."

Smash and grab

It was a display of rage which immediately gained notoriety on the Internet, but Bank of Cyprus Australia is more than happy to be associated with Marcos Baghdatis's multiple racquet-smash, a report said. The bank, which sponsors the Cypriot star, has acquired one of the four racquets Baghdatis destroyed in quick succession and put it on display at its Melbourne offices, with plans to auction it for charity, according to the Herald Sun. Baghdatis visited the offices and, much to the bank's relief, turned out to be a "just a nice guy, friendly and genuine", the newspaper quoted managing director George Tacticos as saying.

Wozniacki has write stuff

Caroline Wozniacki may have tumbled out of the Australian Open and lost the number one ranking in the process, but she didn't leave Melbourne empty-handed. On the day of her defeat to Kim Clijsters, the Dane was named an International Tennis Writers Association ambassador of the year, along with Novak Djokovic. "Novak Djokovic and Caroline Wozniacki both had excellent years on the court, but they have also been great ambassadors for tennis. Because of their success there are big media demands on their time and both have handled this with great professionalism. They set a very good example to their fellow players," the body said. Wozniacki's award came despite her stunt last year, when she made up a story that she'd been attacked by a kangaroo, before admitting it was false.