At Roland Garros,
Did the audience at the Suzanne-Lenglen court completely fall in love this Wednesday evening? One can ask the question, seeing how the game between Arthur Rinderknech and Taylor Fritz ended in a surreal atmosphere. The 25-year-old American, seeded number 9 in the tournament, had the merit of keeping his calm, while he was heckled by many spectators on his service games. Seeking to disrupt his concentration on most of his serves, with “chhhhhhhhhh”, “out”, “double fault”, they downright booed him for long minutes after his success (2-6, 6-4 , 6-3, 6-4).
The reason ? Taylor Fritz crossed the field with his fingers in front of his mouth, to ask them for silence, when he had just eliminated the last French player still in contention at Roland Garros. A non-vulgar gesture which is understandable, given how much his face-offs were not respected by the Lenglen public.
Arthur Rinderknech’s heartthrob was shouted down so much that Marion Bartoli could not carry out his traditional post-match interview on the pitch with the winner of the day. Like the referee before her, for at least the entire fourth round, the former player tried to obtain the silence of fiery supporters, in vain. This is probably the first time at the French Open that a player cannot express himself at the microphone in this way. Like Daniel Medvedevwho had experienced a similar misadventure at theU.S. Open in 2019, Taylor Fritz was just able to quietly slip, with a smirk, “I love you guys”, in high-level troll mode.