In an extraordinary interview with Tennis Majors, the coach of world No.79 Corentin Moutet says he hopes the French Open crowd give Nicolas Jarry ‘hell’ when the two clash at the tournament on Sunday.
Petar Popovic says he would like to seek revenge against the Chilean following a heated encounter between Jarry and Moutet earlier this year at the Santigo Open. At that tournament, Moutet claimed that he was threatened by some fans in the crowd with his mentor going as far as saying that some individuals ‘acted like animals.’ The Frenchman went on to beat Jarry in two tiebreakers who was the top seed in the tournament.
Almost three months on from that incident, the two will lock horns again in the first round of Roland Garros. Jarry comes into the event in fine form after reaching his first Masters 1000 final in Rome. However, Popovic has not forgiven him for what happened earlier this season.
“The fans (in Santiago) were behaving like a bunch of animals,” Popovic told Tennis Majors. “The worst possible behaviour you can get at a tennis match. It was like football, they insulted Corentin non-stop. They swore at him between points, they booed or whistled as he was about to serve.”
“When (Corentin) went to the toilet after the first set, some fans even threatened him. Then I had to threaten them, so they changed their tune. Really ugly atmosphere to play in, and we basically had two-three members of security, around 65 years old, by us.”
Popovic praised Jarry’s father for trying to calm the situation but criticises the tennis player for failing to ‘step up’ and challenge the behaviour of his home fans. He was also accused of calling Moutet ‘pathetic’ following their clash.
Popovic hopes that the Parisien crowd will give Jarry a taste of his own medicine on Sunday when they play against each other. Their match will be the fourth to be play on the Simonne Mathieu stadium.
“All in all – Sunday, he (Jarry) is fu**ed! He made his own bad.” He said.
“We won that match in Santiago, but we were so disgusted with everything that we even had a conversation: ’When he comes to Paris, there will be hell waiting’. And I really hope that the hell will await, so that Jarry grows sick of tennis at least for a few weeks.”
“Tennis-wise, it’s a complicated first round, Jarry played really great in Rome (he reached the final, editor’s note), but we’ll see.”
Jarry is the 16th seed in this year’s draw.
