Days After His French Open Row, 25-Year-Old American Tennis Star Receives a Souvenir Celebrating His Iconic Gesture to Shut Down Rough Paris Crowd

Taylor Fritz was booed by a rather unruly and rowdy French crowd at the recently concluded French Open. The American no.1 found no favor in the eyes of the French crowd as he triumphed over their home favorite Arthur Rinderknech in the second round. Thus, he was booed and whistled at relentlessly by the crowd. This, of course, didn’t go down well with Fritz. He did his part and shushed the crowd, but unfortunately, he lost his third-round match. Yesterday, Fritz flaunted in a funny way that he got gifted a Polaroid version, a sort of souvenir of him shushing the crowd. He posted that Polaroid in two of his stories on Instagram.

Among all the four grand slams, it is the French Open crowd that is often considered notorious for its unwelcoming behavior sometimes. While it would be a serious mistake to label every one of them as such, a few of them definitely do behave in that way.

What exactly transpired in the match between Taylor Fritz and Arthur Rinderknech?

Arthur Rinderknech was the only hope in singles for France at that point. So naturally, all the fans got behind their man and cheered for him passionately. But things got out of control when Fritz was being heckled by one of the French fans. This provoked him to a great extent that led him to do the ‘shush’ gesture on the audience after the match.

However, the audience wouldn’t take it and didn’t allow him to complete his on court interview with Marion Bartoli. He only took one question and left the court. Even Bartoli tried to calm the audience, but they grew more noisy and Fritz wasn’t able to take any more questions. He just said, “The crowd was just so great that I had to let it fire me up. They cheered so well for me, I wanted to make sure I won. Thanks guys.”

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Yesterday, in his Instagram story, Fritz posted a Polaroid version of him shushing the crowd, with a caption that read, “I got given a polaroid version of it” and him flaunting it in a funny, satirical manner.

However, this isn’t the only time the French Open crowd showed their hostility towards a player.

Past instances of French crowd behaving in this manner

In the 2017 French Open fourth round, Garbine Muguruza was left in tears as she lost her match against Kristina Mladenovic in a tight 3-setter. She felt that the crowd was a bit disrespectful and was in tears throughout the press conference. In the recently concluded French Open too, there were a plethora of incidents where such disrespectful moments took place. When Djokovic took a medical time-out in the second set against Davidovich Fokina, he was booed by the crowd for no apparent reason. So this proves Fritz has not been the only victim of the Parisian crowd’s disrespect.

The largely respectful part of the tennis universe would only hope that this incident bolsters the confidence of the young American Fritz. Just like how Djokovic was hit with the same amount of pressure and it could still not permeate his steely grit, Fritz can learn a thing or two from the world no.1. Fritz, however, should be appreciated for not taking this as a personal insult and made jocular remarks on Instagram by showing his shush Polaroid.

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