French Open 2024: Hostile Crowd Shows Glimpses of Their Aggression as Hamad Medjedovic Faces Heat in Tough Qualifiers Win

The relationship between players and the French Open crowd is intense! The French players have a fervent fan base among the Roland Garros crowd. Recently, Hamad Medjedovic, the opponent of French tennis player Lucas Pouille, endured continuous jeers from the audience despite Pouille’s defeat in the qualifying round.

While the indoor arena was filled with people, the crowd went against the 20-year-old Serbian tennis player and stood against him throughout the match. A picture was recently shared by a sports journalist regarding how the crowd was in no mood to leave their countrymen out there to figure out victory alone.

Along with that, a tennis fan shared a video in which, after every shot the 20-year-old pulled against his opponent, the crowd was literally not sitting quiet but reacted after every shot with booes. While most of the time the crowd is required to maintain the silence, when it comes to the Roland Garros crowd, they are quite involved in tennis and give their best to support the air players.

Even though the 30-year-old Frenchman made his comeback last year, since then, the former 10th-ranked tennis player has been struggling to put his best foot forward. A few months back during Indian Wells, he talked about how he still has a lot to get on before completing his usual form.

He said, in an interview with ATP, “It’s great. I’ve proved myself, I’m convinced that’s where I belong. That’s where I want to be the next few months. That’s where I want my ranking to be. And that next year I don’t [want to] need any wild card to participate in this kind of tournament and that I can play every week [against] those guys at this level and to compete with them. I think that’s what I want.”

Not only that, but also a lot of popular names such as Taylor Fritz and Daniil Medvedev talked about getting a certain amount of jeers from the French Open crowd last year.

Taylor Fritz and Daniil Medvedev take on an aggressive French Open crowd 

The crowd cheered the home player, Arthur Rinderknech, who was the underdog, heartily during the tournament’s second round last year. They were raucous and exuberant, applauding the Frenchman’s endeavors and commemorating the victories of his rival, the American Taylor Fritz. He said, “I came out and the crowd was so great honestly. Like, the crowd was just so great. They cheered so well for me, I wanted to make sure that I won. Thanks, guys.” 

The Russian tennis player has been involved in a number of altercations with fans in Australia, the US, and even Paris, last year, during the French Open. Medvedev said, “I asked the umpire to check the mark; I was just discussing with the umpire and was getting booed for whatever reason. I just told them to shut up.” 

While the French Open crowd has taken a lot of popular players into their feathers, such as Rafael Nadal, they still have a competitive edge when it comes to supporting their players.