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Alejandro Davidovich Fokina was left furious with the behaviour of some fans during his five-set victory over Reilly Opelka at the Australian Open. The man from Spain prevailed in a hard-fought contest, surviving a fightback from his American rival to get over the line. Davidovich Fokina won the opening two sets before things started to unravel for him, with Opelka working his way back into the match.

After going 6-5 down in the third set, Davidovich Fokina smashed his racket into the ground and was hit with a code violation. It prompted a few members of the crowd to start heckling him, which caused him further annoyance. During a break in play, he walked over to the chair umpire to vent his frustrations and was heard saying: "Zero respect."

Davidovich Fokina continued to remonstrate with the umpire in light of the heckling but was simply told: "Don't get into it." In the fourth set, he finally stormed over to the group of rowdy fans and was seen pointing his finger in their direction.

The umpire left his seat and urged Davidovich Fokina to play on, before returning to his chair and reminding the fans inside the arena to observe proper etiquette.

Opelka went on to win the fourth set to force a decider, but was unable to maintain his momentum as Davidovich Fokina delivered under pressure to reach the third round. He will face Tommy Paul in his next match on Friday.

Following his victory, the 26-year-old was quizzed on his altercation with the fans and was clearly still seething with those who decided to heckle him.

"It can happen here, it can happen wherever in the world," he said when asked about the crowd's behaviour. "So there were four ignorant drunks that I can do nothing about. Nothing more."

A similar incident took place at last year's Australian Open, with Danielle Collins being targeted by hecklers in the crowd during a match against Destanee Aiava.

After securing victory, she celebrated by smacking her backside and blowing kisses at those who had booed her. Collins later thanked the 'super drunk' fans for paying her holiday bills as she had the last laugh.

"During the match I was like, while I'm out here I might as well take that big fat pay cheque," she said while being jeered by fans.

"We love a five-star vacation, so a big part of that will go towards that. So thank you guys, thanks for coming out here and supporting us tonight. Thank you guys, love you."

Collins, who eventually went on holiday to the Caribbean, was later booed when she was eliminated from the tournament by eventual champion Madison Keys.