Bearing in mind how badly the French crowds have treated him over the years it is ironical Paris should be the scene of his some of his greatest triumphs.

It was also the scene of the worst crowd behaviour I have ever witnessed during his 4R match at the French Open (a few days shy of his 19th birthday) Play was held up for more than five minutes when the 15,000 crowd rose to their feet and erupted in protest after a line call went against Grosjean.

I dont think the French crowds ever quite forgave him for beating the hugely popular Grosjean. And no doubt Rafa finds it hard to forgive them.

There used to be a YouTube of the incident but all traces have been taken down - probably because the French were so embarrassed by the spectator behavour.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/frenchopen/2360417/Nadal-u nruffled-by-agent-provocateur.html

Here is the link without the gap which appeared above.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/frenchopen/2360417/N adal-unruffled-by-agent-provocateur.html

Hey Cheryl,

Did you write this article because of my comment on the other thread? ;)

I completely agree with your observation and I think he's not coming back to Bercy at all given that the Parisian crowd hates him and it's going to be followed directly by WTF next year.

@ed @2:08 a.m.

It's not ironic : his success there is the reason they hate him. They don't hate Verdasco,Ferrer or any other Spaniards.

Rafa has triumphed at RG in spite of the French crowds. I am glad that Rafa is skipping Paris. He doesn't need the aggravation. The French tennis fans will never appreciate him. They do despise him for the very achievements that have made given him the title - King of Clay. Now that he has tied Borg, he really is in a league of his own.

ed,

Thanks for the link to that article. I didn't know much about that incident. Not surprising at all with the French. It's not like they need an excuse to be rude or disrespectful to Rafa.

numero - actually, I hadn't seen your comment when I started writing this blog. Funny that we pretty much agree though. :)

Ed - I remember that. It WAS embarrassing. Shameful behavior, really.

ed2511379830914372 - all of the links are broken (including the second one you pasted). You can't post unbroken links on Tennistalk comments.

Ricky: Both times I pasted a complete link in the comment box but they break up in transit to the site. We've been asked not to copy & paste articles. What is the solution?

NNY: All in all a wise decision to forego Paris particularly as he has always said he is not so comfortable playing on indoor courts - he prefers the open air - plus the DC final follows hard on the heels of the WTF.

I happened to be at that match and believe you me the crowd were like a lynch mob. What shocked me was for the most part they were staid, middle-aged people acting like hooligans. The umpire did nothing to to calm them down nor did Grosjean who was totally passive and kept looking up at the stands as if he wanted them to continue.

I've talked about this in the past, I know, partly because it left an indelible memory but also it was the moment I first focused on Rafa and recognised his exceptional qualities.



.

Ricky: Apologies. I've just re-read your comment. When you say 'you cant post unbroken links' does that mean it is impossible? Or that we are not allowed to post links?

Why does Rafa always have to justify his decisions so much more than any other player?

Rafa has played 79 matches already this year - a lot more than most of his compatriots and on top of that indoor hard courts are his least favourite surface.

This year the added incentive for missing the Paris tournament is the Davis Cup final against Argentina.

To be honest I am glad he is not playing there - I really find the way the Paris crowd treat him extremely distasteful. I have often wanted to come to Roland Garros just to add another voice in support of my all time favourite tennis player.

Yes Paris Masters can wait but DC is more important than anything now. It's team effort and everything has to click nicely for a team to win the DC.

I feel that Rafa may skip the Asian swing next year because of the Olympics, judging by what he said during his interview at the Tokyo final. He mentioned that he believes he'll come to Tokyo in future but didn't promise when, unlike last year when he promised he would 'come back next year' , as he would be the defending champion. It doesn't make sense that he'll skip Tokyo and goes to Shanghai only next year. So, I feel he'll make it to Paris Masters next year followed by London if he qualify, after a long rest. Of course that's just my guess.

ed9234809367364790231471928356819723456 - I mean its IMPOSSIBLE. Whenever a link is posted (including by me), it automatically gets broken up.

By all means keep posting keep posting interesting stuff that you find. Hopefully fellow readers are smart enough (it's not exactly complicated) to copy and pasted the broken link in their web browser and then fix the space!

I know its not quite the correct thread so I'll be brief,
But I think Juan Martin really could qualify for London.
He just needs to get to the finals in Valencia (on the way) & reasonably deep in Paris and its his!
Although it's up to Mardy to certain extent.
Has Fish ever done well at Paris?

I guess most people who post here regularly have mastered the technique.

I mentioned to someone who was having problems a day or two back it is a problem when the link is too long to be able to see all of it in the URL box. In this case I paste it to a text document, correct it, and then paste it back to the URL box. For some reason that seems to work for ed9234809367364790231471928356819723456 but not for ed2511379830914372. lol.

Ricky, you do have your moments sometimes. LOL.

LOL for Ricky Dimon

it is Ed(wina) birthdate I gues so we could say that she is an goldie oldie and ad is just happy to find this site every day. So her favorites should not bedeleted otherwise her nephew should visit her again!

Sienna, it's not hard for anybody to work out the numbers are my date of birth but as a matter of interest what makes you think the Ed stands for Edwina?

just luck I guess.

I dont think so.

ed,

Holy crap you make zare look like a spring chicken then! ;)

Offtopic... guys, use bit.ly or similar to shorten links:

http://bit.ly/sA3ITp
or
http://tgr.ph/Iokj4 - for telegraph :)

Why haven't you told us this before ATG? You could have saved us hours of frustration!

Ed, I thought was male name sienna? Ednumbers...for Edward.

W=23, a=1, r=18, and d=4.

Never a girl...

I thought so to untill she corrected me and told that she was a granny.
Edwina is ancient dutch name, but it is the only name I could think of starting with ed. We could take edna.

hej hej! sienna, you is funny! Edna...Mount Edna! ...but seriusly, Nadal 'bails'...what a strange title?

I would not have described him as bailing. May be it's important to schedule his play carefully more.

He spent too much time writing a book and sharing his problems.

fake time-out always. gamesmanship always. too noisy and annoying always. most arrogant fan.

I hate Nadal really.

cheater will take cheat always

sucks

Good on Rafa the Parisiens just do not deserve him so why should he put himself out for them. I'll be surprised if he ever plays their indoor tournament ever again. I bet he couldn't wait to get his 600 titles under his belt so that he could legitimately stick two fingers up to the Paris Masters for good.

Much as I love seeing Rafa play, I don't mind him pacing himself and not playing in front of people who can't tell a good thing when they see it.

Vamos Rafa

Sorry, I meant 600 matches not titles.

Parisien crowd must be the most partisan in the world! They've just made a good fist of putting Deliciano right off! Did not succeed though lol

Agree with you nadline - the Paris crowd are the pits when it comes to Rafa and they certainly do not appreciate him for the great champion he is.

I am sure Rafa has French fans but the abuse he has had to put up with at Roland Garros especially is absolutely disgusting and it says a lot about him as a person that he has been able to deal with it so well. He is a class act and the Parisien crowd would do well to take a leaf out of his book.

I get the impression attendance (even the evening session) is well down this year.

The crowd were reasonably respectful towards Andy but then that may have been been because Chardy didnt put up too much resistance and they realised not even their efforts couldn't alter the course of the match.

I'm a little confused with the time. My 2 posts today say it's the 8th today so does deuce's but schatz' says it's the 9th as it should be.

Nadline darling, I think you must have a hangover from yesterday ;-)

schatz,

I am in complete agreement with you. I find it hard watching some of these matches because of the blatant partisanship of the Parisien fans. I can understand wanting to cheer for hometown players up to a point, but with them it's ridiculous. It's as though they don't even care if it's a great match, about the quality of the tennis, about giving a player who is from another country his due when he plays a great match.

I am so happy that Rafa pulled out of this tournament. He still has to put up with them at RG, but he loves the tournament and it has given him so many special memories and success. They can't take that away from him.

I think the RG crowd are OK with Rafa now, once Fed won his FO. This year's FO final, I think the crowd were respectful towards Rafa even though they loved Fed more and cheered for Fed more each time he won a point. Compare that to Fed vs Nole semifinal, the crowd were disrespectful towards Nole, probably they wanted a Fedal final so much. The Rafa vs Murray semifinal, the crowd were OK with both of them, at least they were not cheering for Rafa's downfall like they did at the FO 2009 Rafa vs Sod match, probably they're happier now that Fed already won his FO trophy.

However, I would say that whether its RG or Paris Bercy, the crowd would boo off players whom they think did not put in the effort (the RG 2009 R4 Rafa vs Sod match being the exception), whether it's French or non French player(s).

lucky,

I have no problem with the crowd booing for lack of effort. They pay to watch these matches and the players should give it their best.

On tv, they are replaying the Lopez/Monfils match again. The first time I stopped watching it because of the crowd. Now I am determined to get through it because I want to see Lopez playing so well. He seems very focused so far and has not let the crowd get under his skin, which is so important. He just won the first set and played aggressive tennis, serving well and going to net. Monfils doesn't look very sharp out there.

I would say that the RG crowd is politely respectful towards Rafa and that's a big improvement for them. I was never able to watch the 2009 R4 Rafa/Sod match in its entirety. It was bad enough to see Rafa struggling, but the behavior of the crowd was horrendous. To this day I have never seen the complete match and have no intention of doing so.

On t

ed, I think I might have done my posts the day before. I blame jetlag, because we did a short trip to Delhi and came back to Dubai on Tuesday afternoon so I just checked TT to see what was going on and found out that Rafa had pulled out of Paris
but I couldn't remember posting anything on Tuesday I thought all my postings had
been done on Wednesday. Oh dear!!!

Can't wait tot get back to London in time for the WTF where I hope Rafa will redeem himself.


Vamos Rafa

We don't want to know about your tripes! This is a tennis board. Keep personals away.

Go to vamos rafa thread and pour out your heat.

hehehe commentators in holland. Itis so beatifull to watch him play this shot running around bh and ripping fh when he still runs around bh. It is so beautifull even if he loses the match.The other commentator replied. When he´s playing like this he´s not gonna lose

anywayz break up first set. still I am prepaired and expecting a thrilla in manilla type of match.

o wrong thread...mm not sorryat all.