Taylor Fritz of the U.S. plays his second-round match at the French Open against France’s Arthur Rinderknech. Aurelien Morissard/Associated Press

PARIS — The French Open crowd was not happy with American player Taylor Fritz after he beat one of their own – indeed, their last man in the bracket – so they booed and whistle relentlessly. Fritz’s response? He told them to shush. Over and over again.

Fritz, a 25-year-old from California who is seeded No. 9 at Roland Garros, got into a back-and-forth with the fans at Court Suzanne Lenglen after his 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 comeback victory over 78th-ranked Arthur Rinderknech in the second round on Thursday night.

In other men’s play, No. 8 Jannik Sinner was ousted with a wild 6-7 (0), 7-6 (7), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 loss across nearly 5 1/2 hours against 79th-ranked Daniel Altmaier, and No. 18 Alex de Minaur was eliminated by Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-3. No. 4 Casper Ruud, No. 12 Frances Tiafoe and No. 15 Borna Coric all won.

Coco Gauff plays a shot during her win over Julia Grabher in the second round of the French Open in Paris on Thursday. Aurelien Morissard/Associated Press

In the women’s draw, No. 6 Coco Gauff advanced with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Julia Grabher. She will next face Mirra Andreeva, a 16-year-old Russian who is the youngest player to win a match in the women’s main draw at the French Open since 2005. Kayla Day, a Californian ranked 138th, knocked out No. 20 Madison Keys 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

The exits by seeded women continued with Bernarda Pera defeating No. 22 Donna Vekic 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, although No. 1 Iga Swiatek, No. 4 Elena Rybakina and No. 7 Ons Jabeur all advanced in straight sets.

In the Fritz match, Rinderknech attempted a lob that landed long on the last point, and Fritz, who had been running toward the baseline to chase the ball, immediately looked up into the stands and pressed his right index finger to his lips to say, essentially, “Hush!”

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He held that pose for a bit as he headed back toward the net for a postmatch handshake, then spread his arms wide, wind-milled them a bit as if to egg on the rowdiness, and yelled: “Come on! I want to hear it!”

During the customary winner’s on-court interview that followed, more jeers rained down on Fritz, and 2013 Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli kept pausing her attempts to ask a question into her microphone.

So Fritz again said, “Shhhhh!” and put his finger toward his mouth, while Bartoli unsuccessfully tried to get the spectators to lower their decibel level.

More boos. More whistles.

And the awkwardness continued as both Bartoli and a stadium announcer kept saying, “S’il vous plaît” – “Please!” – to no avail, while Fritz stood there with his arms crossed. A few U.S. supporters with signs and flags drew Fritz’s attention from the front row, and he looked over and said to them, “I love you guys.”

But the interview was still on hold. Bartoli tried asking a question in English, which only served to draw more boos.

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So Fritz told her he couldn’t hear her. Bartoli moved closer and finally got out a query – but it didn’t seem to matter what her words were.

Fritz had his hands on his hips and a message on his mind – one reminiscent of Daniil Medvedev’s contretemps with fans at the 2019 U.S. Open.

“I came out and the crowd was so great honestly. Like, the crowd was just so great,” Fritz said, as folks tried to drown out his voice. “They cheered so well for me, I wanted to make sure that I won. Thanks, guys.”

And with that, he exited the stage.

Gauff is one of just 12 seeded women left in the field, the fewest to reach the third round at Roland Garros since the number of seeds expanded to 32 in 2002.

Andreeva and Gauff have practiced together, but that won’t mean much Saturday.

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“The practice and the match is different, so I might also play different,” Andreeva said. “I don’t know. Who knows?”

She’s played terrifically clean tennis so far, including making a total of 15 unforced errors to 38 for Parry and winning 14 of 21 points that lasted at least nine strokes.

“Really solid for her age. She did everything better than me today,” said the 79th-ranked Parry, who made it to the third round at two majors last season. “She doesn’t miss a lot. Like nothing. You never have an easy point. It’s always a long rally.”

The 143rd-ranked Andreeva made her way through qualifying rounds last week without dropping a set to earn her debut berth in the women’s bracket at a Grand Slam tournament – and she still is making things look easy so far at Roland Garros. A 6-1, 6-2 victory over Diane Perry of France in 77 minutes on Thursday put her in the third round; that followed a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Alison Riske-Amritraj of the U.S. that lasted 56 minutes.

Sinner held two match points while serving for the victory at 5-4 in the fourth set but couldn’t convert either. Altmaier came all the way back to end things with a 111 mph ace on his fifth match point.

“I don’t know if you can call it a historical match,” Altmaier said as he wiped away tears, “but I think it was one to remember.”


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