WATCH: Taylor Fritz goes into villain mode as he hushes booing French crowd

French Open
Taylor Fritz during a match

Taylor Fritz took out Arthur Rinderknech in the second round at Roland Garros and then took on the booing Parisian crowd as he adopted the role of villain at the French Open.

After a slow start on Thursday, the ninth-seeded Fritz quickly found his rhythm and by the end secured a fairly comfortable 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 win in two hours and 50 minutes to reach the third round of the clay-court Grand Slam for only the second time in his career.

But the spectators on Court Suzanne Lenglen certainly didn’t take kindly to the American beating one of their own and – to add insult to injury – Rinderknech was also the last Frenchman standing at Roland Garros so the locals were not in the mood to cheer on Fritz after the umpire called “game, set and match”.

In fact they were in a booing mood, but instead of just letting it slide Fritz decided to fight fire with fire as he hushed the crowd.

And that was not where his antics ended as he urged them to give him some more shouting “Come on! I want to hear it!”

After the post-match handshake with Rinderknech and the chair official, the American went in for more as he again told the booing spectators to “shush” and this time he even blew some kisses to them as well.

The on-court interview didn’t really get going as the booing continued and all Fritz could really get out was: “The crowd was just so great that I had to let it fire me up. They cheered so well for me, I wanted to make sure I won. Thanks guys.”

Rinderknech was all in favour of the “crazy” atmosphere as he doesn’t feel the spectators overstepped the line.

“In the US the public even interacts in between the points. You can imagine here (at the French Open) if this had been the case, the match would have been crazy,” the Frenchman said during his post-match press conference

“Maybe in the US, the sound was a bit less. As long as people don’t shout during the points and things that have nothing to do with encouragement, then I’m in favour of it. It just makes the game even better.”

Fritz will face Francisco Cerundolo in the third round, but he will likely have to prepare for more booing from the spectators.

READ MORE: Thanasi Kokkinakis after brutal win: ‘S*** I have to go again in two days’

Arthur Rinderknech Taylor Fritz

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