This year's Roland Garros saw plenty of players fall out with the Parisian crowd, but none had it worse than Taylor Fritz.
Taylor Fritz was playing against a native French player, Arthur Rinderknech, at Roland Garros, and he was not facing only the player but also the crowd. The crowd heavily backed their compatriot, which wasn't a problem, but Fritz grew quite tired of it over time.
The booing was present for much of the match but exploded in intensity when Fritz finished off the match and silenced the crowd. The crowd was so tilted that they kept booing for several minutes as Marion Bartoli tried to interview Fritz post-match, which were scenes we hadn't seen before.
It became this huge talking point, as the Tournament Director also called it too much. He was also booed in the next match, but that was a losing effort, so he didn't have to endure for too long. Fast forward to now, Fritz mentioned that situation during a Twitch stream.
That was a crazy atmosphere, it felt good to win the match and be done with it, but it was ridiculous. Most of the time when I tossed the ball, I just expected to catch it back because someone would scream. It was not cool, and it was fun to celebrate afterwards.
The crowd didn't appreciate the celebrations, especially the final one, but as you can see, Fritz isn't bothered by that. He actually finds inspiration when somebody makes him angry, which happened in that match. It doesn't happen organically from just playing a player; he needs a trigger.
When I get really fired up and I get angry, I play much better tennis. The thing is, I can't fake it, I can't look at the other side of the net and see the guy I like and get fired up, I can't lie to myself, so it has to be a certain situation when someone pis*es me off.
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