Watching Andy Murray play, and eventually destroy, Richard Gasquet in the French Open Tennis Championship, one can only be disgusted by the total lack of sportsmanship shown by the audience.
Obviously, a French crowd will always support its own players exactly as an English crowd does at Wimbledon, but the English crowd also appreciates the fine play of the opponent. Today's match saw a crowd that applauded madly whenever their man won a point and yet became increasingly silent when his opponent won one. There were even times when fine shots by Murray were met by an entirely silent stadium and, at the end, there were even boos and catcalls when Murray won points; no Wimbledon crowd has ever been so shockingly partizan nor so unsporting. The truly frightening thing is that the crowd's treatment of Murray is anything but unusual; his eventual reception when victory was achieved was, to say the least, muted and the crowd booed as much as they cheered.
One has to assume that this is a representation of the French culture and it is, perhaps, something that we should all take note of. The French are for the French, sod everyone else.
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