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. 

Iga Swiatek had admitted she is ‘proud’ of her clay court season but is seeking consistent improvement over the rest of the season.

The world number one is aiming for a third consecutive Roland Garros title and heads into Paris in dominant form.

Titles in Madrid and Rome with two contrasting wins over Aryna Sabalenka means she is the overwhelming favourite heading into the fortnight.

Speaking ahead of her opening match Swiatek spoke about how she is a better tennis player from 2022 and how proud she is of her clay court season so far, “I think I’m a better player because I just grew and I worked hard during the past two years,” Swiatek explained in her press conference.

“I feel like I’m progressing, so I guess I should be a better tennis player. Comparing the results, or my feelings, two years ago it was all kind of new for me, and I think I won so many matches also because nobody really expected it.

“When the streak started, I wasn’t even second in the rankings, so I think other players were also unprepared maybe for my game sometimes. Now it’s different. Now they are prepared, and I feel like I keep having a target on my back, because I’m No. 1. So I think actually I’m more proud of what’s happening right now and winning all these titles this year already has shown that we are going on the right path.”

Despite her recent dominance, Swiatek isn’t resting on her laurels as she continues to seek improvement.

The Pole has been working on several areas on her game including the serve as she has become a more aggressive player over the last couple of years.

Swiatek spoke on the changes she has made with her coach as she seeks more consistent improvement, “Changing the technique, I think it allowed me to serve faster. We worked on my placement as well, so it got better for sure. I feel like I have more options when I’m serving,” Swiatek told the Roland Garros website.

“As you could see in Rome, for example, I had many situations when I was a break point down, and I was able to kind of save the game with my first serve. So this tournament showed that we are going in the right direction. Next goal is to keep my serve at a consistent level throughout the whole season. We’ll see how that’s going to go.

“But I think overall my coach from the beginning had a great idea about my serve. The other thing is me implementing it, so we are working hard for the movement to be smooth and to get muscle memory, so even under the biggest pressure and stress, I’m going to be serving the same way.”

Swiatek will begin her campaign against qualifier Leolia Jeanjean in her opening round match on Monday with potentially Naomi Osaka awaiting in round two.

Carlos Alcaraz is bidding for a first Roland Garros title but the Spaniard will need to overcome the pain barrier in order to achieve his goal.

The world number three enters this year’s tournament with mixed preparations having suffered an injury during practice in Monte-Carlo.

Alcaraz failed to play in Barcelona, where he was defending champion, before exiting Madrid at the quarter-finals stage to eventual winner Andrey Rublev.

Despite Alcaraz’s lack of fitness, the Spaniard will feel he has a good chance of achieving a special landmark as he has the opportunity to win 75% of the career Grand Slam.

Speaking ahead of the fortnight Alcaraz admitted he is feeling better but needs to change some psychological feelings when hitting the forehand again, “I’m feeling better. At least I can practise, hit balls without pain. That’s a really good point for me,” Alcaraz explained in his pre-tournament press conference.

“I’m not feeling any pain in the practices when I step on the court. But I’m still thinking about it when I am hitting forehands. Probably I’m gonna say I’m a little bit scared about hitting every forehand 100 percent. So I have to change it in my first match.”

Roland Garros holds a special place in Alcaraz’s heart having had good memories and matches in the past with the Spaniard reaching the semi-finals last year.

Now Alcaraz is aiming to win his maiden title in Paris as he continues his development at an elite level.

The Spaniard spoke about how special Roland Garros is and spoke about how wide open this year’s tournament is given the form and fitness of Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner, “Right now, I don’t see a clear favourite to win the tournament, but there is a wide range of players who can do it,” Alcaraz explained.

“It’s Roland-Garros and it’s a really special tournament. Everybody wants to do good results here. This tournament is one of the main reasons that I’m practicing every day. I want to be a better player, to be able to win these kinds of tournaments.”

Alcaraz starts his Roland Garros on Sunday against lucky loser J.J. Wolf.