Taylor Fritz knew that in his third-round match, he will have to fight more than just his opponent and it proved to be true.
In his second-round match, against the last standing Frenchman in the ATP draw, Arthur Rinderknech, the American clashed with the crowd after the match. He tried silencing them when pointing with his finger to his mouth, but it was the French crowd that then silenced his interview.
Fritz was booed for over a minute and even his girlfriend Morgan Riddle was shocked. On the other hand, John McEnroe supported his actions, but the American knew it will be difficult for him in the next match as fans usually don't forget.
And that proved to be true as the crowd started booing him already when he entered the court. Ultimately, Fritz lost the match in four sets, 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 5-7, but the fans weren't as hostile as he probably expected as they also cheered him on as he left the court.
After the match, his opponent was asked about the atmosphere and what did he expect ahead of the match. Cerundolo shared that he was aware of what happened in Fritz's previous match so he expected the crowd to be on his side.
"Yeah, today was super nice, first time on Lenglen. Was wild. I knew what Taylor did at the other match so probably I knew that today the crowd was going to be by my side. I think it was most of the match."
Up next, the Argentinian will play against Holger Rune who had his bit of interactions with the crowd. He was heavily booed in Madrid, but another interesting moment happened in Rome when he was booed already when entering the court, similar to Fritz. Predicting the match and the crowd, Cerundolo said:
"With Holger, yeah, it will be wild, for sure. He likes to engage the crowd, play with them. Sometimes they are against him, but sometimes they are with him because he's a great player. But, yeah, it's going to be fun. I'm going to enjoy it. Hopefully, they will be by my side. It will probably be, I don't know, 50/50."
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