Ons Jabeur put an end to the dream of Frenchwoman Océane Dodin, the last Frenchwoman in the running and dominated in two sets on Thursday at Roland-Garros. A quiet victory for the seventh player in the world who also had to deal with the slightly too exacerbated chauvinism of the Parisian public dissipated at times “The French public is a bit difficult. I don’t really like when they do the “boo” and all. It’s part of the game. They want the French to win, that’s normal. I would say in other countries, even if I do well or something like that, they like it. Not necessarily here. They prefer when I don’t make good moves. Once again, it’s part of the game”, confided the player, making it clear that she considered the French to be “passionate about tennis”.
Ons Jabeur even had the right to a few whistles from the public when a ball surprised the Frenchwoman after hitting the net. “It’s not always the best to have those reactions and be booed even if you hit the net and win the point. It’s part of the game. Obviously I didn’t want to do it. It was a stroke of luck for me. The most difficult thing is not to get involved with the public because as soon as you react to what they do it will inflame the situation and that’s what happened with others players. For me the key was to focus on what I was doing. I can’t control what they do and so I focused on myself. I knew they were going to try to distract me in every way possible,” she added.
Jabeur was right not to react on the pitch. Taylor Fritz, he did not hesitate to go to the confrontation with the spectators during his match against Arthur Rinderknech, eliminated in four sets. Heckled by the noisy stands, the American allowed himself to chamber his detractors after the match point by putting his finger to the lips to ask them to be quiet. The spectators of the Suzanne-Lenglen court did not appreciate, giving the 8th player in the world a nice bronca when he was questioned by Marion Bartoli on the court.
