In all sports, there are advantages to being at home. At the French Open, being a visitor playing against a French player can feel as though the whole world is against you.
The crowds do not just cheer. They boo, they whistle, they make noise between serves, they hurl insults — and, at least once, even gum — at the locals’ opponents. That sort of behavior is why the tournament organizers banned alcohol from the stands last year, a policy still in place.
Some of the non-French athletes who deal with that sort of negativity in Paris, such as 19-year-old Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic, who eliminated Alexandre Muller in front of a rowdy crowd at Court 14 on Tuesday, compare the high-intensity atmosphere with that of a soccer game.
Photo: AP
Others choose stronger terms.
“Disgusting. Worst experience of my life,” was what Nicolas Jarry of Chile said this week when asked to think back to last year’s rowdy loss at Court Simonne-Mathieu to France’s Corentin Moutet, whose coach had implored the spectators to make life “hell” for Jarry after the two had a contentious meeting in Santiago earlier in the season.
Jarry blamed that on Moutet, saying that everything was calmer during his loss on Monday to another Frenchman, Arthur Fils, whom the Chilean called a “good guy” and a “gentleman.”
“It’s a battle out there, you know. Sometimes, it’s not just a battle with the player,” said Novak Djokovic, who was scheduled to face the irrepressible Moutet in the second round today.
“They’re going to have the crowd on their side. It’s nothing strange about it. It’s expected,” the 24-time Grand Slam champion said.
So much for the supposed silence usually found in a tennis arena. It all raises questions about where the line between support and incivility lies.
“We’ve stepped up security, and given chair umpires greater power to intervene and report unacceptable behavior in the stands,” tournament director Amelie Mauresmo, a former No. 1 player, said before this year’s event.
For Mensik on Tuesday, the jeers began every time he hit the ball during the warm-up ahead of his 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 7-5, 6-3 win over Muller. More arrived once play began, accompanying each of his 20 aces or just when he simply walked to check a ball mark — a routine part of clay-court tennis.
After taking the third set, Mensik gave the boo birds a little bit back, waving his right index finger as if it were a baton conducting an orchestra, a move he learned from Djokovic.
“Sometimes, it is too far,” Mensik said of the crowd.
There are two sides to the loud backing French players receive.
It “makes you feel like you could reach for the stars,” said the highest-ranked French woman, Varvara Gracheva, who acknowledged that support also can become a burden.
She lost in the first round on Tuesday.
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