Defending champion ousted
Muguruza: French fans should be ‘more respectful.’
PARIS — Garbine Muguruza did not take kindly to the way spectators pulled for her opponent — her French opponent, mind you — at the French Open.
So after her title defense ended with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 loss to 13th-seeded Kristina Mladenovic at a packed and rowdy Court Suzanne Lenglen on a surprise-filled Sunday that left zero past Grand Slam champions in the women’s field, Muguruza walked toward the locker room while wagging a finger toward the stands, as if to say, “Tsk, tsk!”
“The crowd was really tough today,” Muguruza said at a news conference that was halted at one point so she could compose herself after getting choked up.
“Sometimes,” she added, “(fans) should be a little bit more respectful.”
All four of the day’s fourthround matches pitted one woman who has won at least one major trophy (Muguruza, Venus Williams, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Samantha Stosur) against a woman who has not. And each time, the less-accomplished player won. Add it all up, and it means that there will be a first-time major title winner at the end of the tournament.
About an hour after Muguruza’s exit, seven-time major champion Williams lost to 30th-seeded Timea Bacsinszky 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.
“She had so many answers today,” said Williams, who also lost to Bacsinszky in the fourth round a year ago.
Kuznetsova, who won the 2009 French Open and 2004 U.S. Open, was ousted by two-time major runner-up Caroline Wozniacki 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, while 2011 U.S. Open champion Stosur was eliminated by 19-year-old Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Mladenovic will face Bacsinszky next, and Wozniacki meets Ostapenko. In addition, all eight women who play in the fourth round are seeking a first major title, so it will be the first French Open since 1977 — and first major tournament anywhere since the 1979 Australian Open — without a past Slam champion among the quarterfinalists.
This was Muguruza’s first attempt at defending a Grand Slam championship, and the Spaniard ran into a determined Mladenovic, who was backed by a vocal crowd of countrymen who chanted her nickname, Kiki, throughout the match. Mladenovic often played to the fans, waving her arms for more noise.
“I’m playing at home. Obviously they are excited. The atmosphere was just, yeah, amazing,” Mladenovic said.
The last woman representing France to win the country’s Grand Slam event was Mary Pierce in 2000.