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Crowd gets to Muguruza, breaks down in tears after lively clash with Mladenovic

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The reigning French Open champion Garbine Muguruza had to leave her press conference in tears yesterday following a feisty encounter with French No 1 Kiki Mladenovic.

After a strong fight, the Spaniard Muguruza was eliminated in three sets against the home favourite - 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 - and later complained about the conduct of the partisan French crowd.

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Muguruza: Crowd lacked respect

Garbine Muguruza is unhappy with the Roland Garros spectators as she loses to home favourite, Kiki Mladenovic.

According to reports on social media, one so-called fan had told her to "f--- off back to Venezuela".

"The crowd today was a little bit tough for me," said Muguruza. "I understand [but] I just think that they should be a little bit more respectful. We had to stop. The chair umpire has to always calm the crowd down. I'm not here to create enemies. I mean, I love playing here. It's not a good feeling."

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Her coach, Sam Sumyk, reportedly called the crowd "pathetic" and said they had "no class" but Mladenovic differed. "I don't think that they crossed the line," she said. "I experienced something in Germany where it was way more fired up, but I didn't criticise the crowd being unfair or anything, because it's also normal to see the crowd picking out their favourite."

Muguruza has been trying to reprise the punishing baseline hitting that carried her to this title last year, but yesterday she kept botching the final putaway. In reply, Mladenovic coughed up no fewer than 16 double faults, but her defence was robust and her forehand was a weapon throughout.

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Muguruza was asked after the match about the cries of "forza" - Italian for "come on" - which Mladenovic had uttered after some of her opponent's errors. That was the moment when Muguruza broke down, and had to leave the interview room for a minute or two to compose herself.

When she returned, she was asked again whether the "forza" calls had been annoying, and replied: "No, I think she speaks like 25 languages, I heard."

This was a pointed riposte to Mladenovic's recent criticism of Caroline Garcia, the Frenchwoman who used to be her doubles partner until they had a falling out.

"I'm very independent [but] she is completely controlled by her father," said Mladenovic. "I speak five languages and finished high school [but] she stopped her studies."

To return to Muguruza, the past 12 months have been frustrating. Her superb victory over Serena Williams in last year's French Open final was followed by a second-round exit from Wimbledon at the hands of world No 124 Jana Cepalova. Despite standing at No 5 in the world rankings, Muguruza has not reached another final since that day and will probably drop around 10 places when this event is finished.

UK Daily Telegraph

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