By: Alberto Amalfi
Tennis Week
May 30, 2024
Rafael Nadal�s run through the Roland Garros draw was shower-stalled yesterday. Today, Nadal reigned a series of winners to storm into the Roland Garros quarterfinals after wrapping up a 6-4, 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 victory over 23rd-seeded French man Sebastien Grosjean.
Raising his clay-court record to 35-2 on the season, Nadal will play David Ferrer in an all-Spanish quarterfinal. The 20th-seeded Ferrer fought back from a 0-4 deficit in the decisive set to defeat defending champion Gaston Gaudio 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-4.
The Nadal-Ferrer match marks their third meeting this season. Nadal, who has won two of their three meetings, beat Ferrer 6-4, 6-3 in the Key Biscayne semifinals and scored a 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory in the Rome semifinals.
"He has been playing very well," Nadal said of Ferrer. "He's impressive really. I played him in Rome. I realize that I'm going to have to play my best tennis to win against him. Well, we shall see what happens on the day of the match. I'm also playing well. He probably thinks also that it's going to be a tough match. I think it's a tough match, but he probably thinks it's a tough match, as well. We'll see. It's probably a complicated match for the two of us."
Complications arose for Nadal on Sunday when his match with Grosjean began. Rain forced the postponement of play with the 18-year-old Spanish sensation holding a 6-4, 3-6, 3-0 lead over Grosjean, but it was a nine-minute shower of jeers and whistles from the French crowd that delayed play following the opening game of the second set.
During a rally on break point in his opening serve game of the second set, Grosjean circled a mark behind the baseline indicating the spot where he felt Nadal�s shot landed long. But the Frenchman continued to play the point and lost it. Since Grosjean did not stop play immediately to ask for an inspection of the mark, chair umpire Damian Steiner, in accordance with International Tennis Federation rules, did not leave the chair to check the mark. ITF rules state that �a chair umpire may only overrule a line umpire immediately after the clear mistake has been made." Had Grosjean stopped play immediately after the ball landed, then Steiner could have inspected the mark.
Instead, the call stood, Grosjean continued his protest after the point was completed and a fourth-round singles showdown suddenly got very crowded. Indignant over the fact the chair umpire did not check the ball mark, many members of the crowd stood, stomped, whistled, jeered and turned their thumbs down to indicate their displeasure.
Forgoing fundamental fairness in favor of partisan passion, French fans reigned a near six-minute shower of jeers and boos on the court while Nadal stood at the line, ball in hand, ready to serve.
"The crowd yesterday didn't really behave as they maybe should behave when watching a match of tennis," Nadal said. "But this is France. It's not Spain. I'd never seen anything like that in Spain, that's for sure. But now I'm here. I'm in France. It was just for a really silly thing."
The 23rd-seeded Grosjean, who is widely respected by his fellow players, made little effort to help quell the crowd and actually contributed to the circus-atmosphere and crowd-induced delay by turning his back to the court when Nadal was ready to serve. Nadal received little help from the chair umpire who was strangely silent, allowing the crowd crescendo to escalate and Grosjean to continue his meandering behind the baseline rather than attempting to regain control of the match by explaining the rule to the crowd ordering play to resume.
"As soon as the crowd got an opportunity, they reacted. The opportunity was exploited by Grosjean," Nadal said today. "We've never seen anything like it, waiting for 10 minutes on the court like that. Today the crowd was more focused, more respectful, so that was better."
The fourth-seeded Spaniard silenced both Grosjean and the French fans today by winning nine of the 12 games to close out the victory.
"I wasn't nervous at all. I thought if the same thing happens, it's not going to affect me in the same way," Nadal said of his approach to completing the match today. "Maybe I would have gotten a little nervous if it had happened, but less so than yesterday because I'd overcome the situation yesterday. When the third set resumed this morning, I just got into the game again. I focused on my game and forgot about everything else."
Though the wrath of the Roland Garros fans was directed at the chair umpire, French crowds have turned on players in the past. Many fans took a vocal stand against Serena Williams in her 2003 semifinal against Justine Henin-Hardenne, who held up her hand while Williams started to serve prompting Williams to ask for a first serve. Jeering Williams' correct questioning of inaccurate line calls and cheering her errors, the French fans forced their collective will on the match as Williams, who was six points from victory, ultimately fell, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5. That result came four years after French fans reduced Martina Hingis to tears after she crossed the net to question an incorrect line call against her. Hingis dissolved amid the dissent, lost her lead and the match to Steffi Graf.
Fickle French fans have turned on their own players jeering everyone from former French Open finalist Henri Leconte to 2000 champion Mary Pierce on occasion.
"When you're losing, the public here doesn't really like it; they're very, very harsh on you," said Pierce, who received resounding support in her three-set victory over Patty Schnyder today.
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