At Roland Garros,
Marion Bartoli may have experienced Thursday on the Suzanne-Lenglen court the most beautiful and the worst interview of her post-career as a professional player. She thus saw a Daniel Altmaier moved to tears receiving a warm ovation from the crowd after his feat against Jannik Sinner. Then shortly after 11 p.m., she simply could not question Taylor Fritz, winner of Arthur Rinderknech, who was the last Frenchman still in the running at Porte d’Auteuil. Unheard of in the history of the Grand Slams, where it is customary to listen to the winner of the day for a few moments, even when he has eliminated a player from the host country. But there, the bronca was deafening against the 25-year-old American. His wrong? To have celebrated his victory by chambering the Lenglen with a finger on his mouth, before giving him kisses in response to the whistles.
Recognize that we have known more trash in the history of the sport, especially given the preferential treatment that Taylor Fritz (25) received from the end of the third set. Before that, the atmosphere was huge and festive for a long time, halfway in size/intensity between Lucas Pouille’s career on court number 14 and Gaël Monfils’ miracle on the Central in night session Tuesday. At a set everywhere, 5-3, service to follow for the seeded No. 9 of the tournament, things suddenly went wrong. A spectator yelled “out” to distract Fritz while throwing the ball. The latter therefore logically refused to hit this service, which led to whistles, then a disputed arbitration decision in stride.
“Who does not jump is not French” in full play
White-hot from there, the Suzanne-Lenglen showed as many delicious initiatives (a To Arms And The Marseillaise several times when changing sides) than an irritating habit of always being loud and disrespectful during Fritz’s service games. The apotheosis unsurprisingly took place for the final game, at 5-4 in the fourth set, when the stands of Lenglen had received the reinforcement of several dozen spectators from a Central emptied after the victory of Sascha Zverev. To keep in mind the madness that will undoubtedly be a landmark at Roland-Garros, we reviewed the long sequence overnight.
- We hear the audience talking before the first ball, then celebrating the serve in the net with almost the same fervor as if it were a winning shot from Arthur Rinderknech.
- At 0/15, the tricolor supporters launch a “Who does not jump is not French”, between two points, which obviously delays the launch of the next point.
- At 15/15, when Fritz is going to throw his second ball, we hear “the double, the double” then “chhhhhhhh” (taken up in chorus on purpose to make fun of the referee, who has called for silence a good hundred time). Many people laugh behind, then boo the American when he points out to the referee that he cannot serve under these conditions. No less than 52 seconds passed between when he was going to throw his second ball and when he hit it for good. Or an eternity in the mechanics / routine of such a sport, which requires a sacred concentration, especially in the service.
“By trying to heckle Fritz, the public was playing its last card of the match, for the last Frenchman of the tournament, explains Baptiste Grodenic, a friend of Arthur Rinderknech. If there wasn’t such an atmosphere, I’m not sure Arthur would have made this match. Certainly, but the mad fervor noted for Pouille-Rodionov and Monfils-Baez was felt in the overflowing encouragement, but not in the attempts to destabilize the opponent by all means or almost.
A “night session” effect?
“It shocked me to hear the French systematically applaud the missed services of Fritz, notes Ricarda, who came from Münster (Germany) to attend Roland-Garros. The concentration cannot be the same for each player, so it alters the competition. In tennis, values are historically important so we are not used to seeing such a lack of fair play. Could this be one of the night sessions effects? Is it a desire of the ATP and the Grand Slams to broaden its audience, to dust off the codes of a discipline which was still very square, and for which we remained seated and silent most of our time ago? ten years.
“I wonder if the people who are constantly making noise this evening during the exchanges know the rules of tennis”, questions Nicolas Derycke, former champion of France 4th series of tennis and accustomed to Roland-Garros. Indeed, at the professional level, the public of a football stadium or a basketball hall will necessarily whistle an opponent about to take a penalty or very important free throws. And on the contrary in tennis, it can’t be seen / done, even in the event of a Roland final against a Frenchman (sorry for the very fictitious projection). When we think back to the appearance of the song Auxarmes on Thursday evening, we are in the supporter and even ultra universe, and therefore very far from the base of the spectators who came to soberly applaud Cédric Pioline and Arnaud Boetsch in the 1990s.
It’s shameful to have such behavior against a very great player like Fritz, continues Nicolas Deycke, reassembled. Even the authority of the referee was disputed, the public never taking into account his remarks. »
The electricity of this Fritz-Rinderknech symbolizes the almost sociological evolution of such a tennis match. And given the start time of this match, just after 8 p.m., the party/drinking dimension is not at all the same as during siesta time, at 25°C in full sun. Deprived of an interview in the field with Marion Bartoli, Taylor Fritz unfortunately then zapped the press point, where we would have been curious to have his perception of this party partly spoiled on Lenglen.
“The Australians were much drunker”
His evening opponent was on the other hand there to shed some interesting light. “I’m more for this kind of football atmosphere, says Arthur Rinderknech. From the moment we stand during points and then shout in all directions, I’m for it. It makes the sport and the game so much better. I experienced that being on the other side at the Australian Open, and the Australians were much drunker than the French! I don’t know if we slipped Fritz sweet little words, I did over there. »
Arthur Rinderknech refers to his victory in a tense climate against the Australian Alexei Popyrin, in January 2022, which he had punctuated by going taunt the public of the Melbourne side court. Daniil Medvedev had experienced an episode almost similar to the US Open 2019, but he responded by chambering the microphone at the American supporters booing him. The proof that apart from the always classy Wimbledon, Roland-Garros is, like the other Grand Slams, at a crossroads in terms of its identity.