Jo-Wilfried Tsonga disappointed by French crowd at final
ByReuters
Updated 21/11/2014 at 18:33 GMT
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rued a lack of crowd support in his Davis Cup final defeat to Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka as a record attendance could not bring the best out of the French number one in his opening singles match on Friday.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Stanislas Wawrinka (Getty)
Image credit: Getty Images
Some 2,500 Switzerland fans, among a 27,432 crowd, were frequently more vocal than the massed home support under the closed roof of the Pierre Mauroy stadium as Wawrinka breezed past Tsonga 6-1 3-6 6-3 6-2 to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
"When the teams were introduced, they (the Switzerland fans) applauded Stan more than us, Roger (Federer) more than us. We heard the Swiss spectators more than we heard the French ones," a dejected Tsonga told a news conference.
"Stan, for example, announced that the ball was out, and it was in. I just went to check the mark, and I was booed in my own country -- maybe not by the French spectators but by the Swiss spectators. It's annoying."
Tsonga, however, did little to spark cheers from the crowd with an uninspiring display in the face of a fired-up Wawrinka, who peppered the court with winners.
"We need to go and get the enthusiasm of the French crowd by the quality of our game," Tsonga added.
"It's because I was not winning today maybe that this happened. I'm hoping that for the next matches it's going to change."
Wawrinka said that the configuration of the arena, with many of the seats close to the court reserved for VIPs, might have played a role in muting the home support, especially since the Swiss fans were closer to the action.
"I think because of the match maybe we were having more support from the Swiss people than the French guys," he said.
"I think it's tough to get all the noise from the people really upstairs."
Yet Wawrinka said that his performance was the main reason for the dampened atmosphere.
"They didn't have the chance to do something for him," he said.
"I think it's maybe a little bit easy for him to say the crowd wasn't supporting him enough. I think it's just because on the court I was the better player and that's it."
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