Alize Cornet tried to play through pain in Paris.
The harsh response she received from home fans hurt even more.
Contesting her 18th Roland Garros, Cornet lost nine games in a row before retiring from her third-round match with a torn abductor muscle trailing Qinwen Zheng 6-0, 3-0 today.
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When Cornet walked to net to shake hands with Zheng some French fans unloaded on the Frenchwoman reigning jeers and boos down on her.
Afterward, Cornet said the rude response hurt more than her injury.
"What is amazing that people dared to boo me on the court when I had to abandon the match," Cornet said. "And it was because I was in pain. But sometimes the French audience surprises me and not always in the right direction."
While the women contesting her 61st consecutive Grand Slam said the jeering was primarily coming from a "handful of idiots" it didn't diminish the sting she felt.
"Yes, it hurt more than my injury itself. But you can't generalize things," Cornet said. "It was just a handful of people in the stadium so maybe they made a lot of noise. But it's really too much when you see everything I've been giving on the court for so many years. I think it would have been far easier for me not to come on to the court, not to put myself, make myself vulnerable with this injury.
"So, yeah, no, it's a real pain because it's unfair and when things are unfair it hurts. But once again most of the people are no doubt sad for me and understand what's happening, but this handful of idiots really, really, really makes you feel bad."
It's not the first time notoriously fickle French fans have turned on players.
Some French fans gave two-time Grand Slam champion and French hero Amelie Mauresmo, now the Roland Garros tournament director, tough times during her playing days.
Earlier this week, some in the crowd actually booed defending Rolan Garros singles and doubles champion Barbora Krejcikova when she took a perfectly legal bathroom break.
Of course fans pay for tickets and have the right to express themselves.
Booing a French player in Paris when she said she was in so much pain she couldn't move is like verbally kicking a marathoner who can't complete the race.
"I couldn't move around on the court and I knew it before I came on to the court, but I decided to try because that's how I am," Cornet said. "I always try my luck right to the end, but maybe I shouldn't have played and not taken the risk of making things worse.
"So I do have a tear in the abductor muscle, so it was a risky bet, but I wanted to give it a try. But she really didn't allow me to breathe even, so it was largely due to her that I was, that I lost 0-6, 0-3 and not just because of the injury. It's just that at one point when you're in pain there's no point in carrying on."
Photo credit: Getty