Santiago, Sept 30: Chilean tennis champion Marcelo Rios is arrested for brawling.

Former world number one tennis player Marcelo Rios was released from jail Sunday (Sept. 28) after a bar fight in his native Chile. Witnesses said the 27-year-old and his friend argued with staff inside the bar and then clashed with police after they arrived. "Well, I saw him fighting inside with the staff," said one witness. "Later, I even saw him take a radio from the city security and then he got into a fistfight with the police. (Journalist asks, 'Was he inebriated?') Yes, both (Marcelo Rios and his friend) of them." Rios has previously made headlines for his off-court antics, most recently in January of this year when he was involved in a fight at a bar in La Serena, Chile.


Rios, who in 1999 became the first South American to hold the number one ranking, has been plagued by a recent spate of injuries.


He has won 18 singles titles and finished 24th in the Champions Race last year. He also lost his record of having won at least one ATP title every year since 1995.


Bureau Report