Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France returns a backhand to Novak Djokovic of Serbia during their men's singles match at the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris June 1, 2014.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France returns a backhand to Novak Djokovic of Serbia during their men's singles match at the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris June 1, 2014. REUTERS

Despite 27, 432 fans in an official tennis match on French soil, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga seemed unhappy about it. For the French number one, he could have had more than 27 thousand if he did not crash by 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, to Stan Wawrinka during the Davis Cup final.

Tsonga somehow expected the French fans to massively outnumber about 2500 Swiss red-clad supporters at the Lille football stadium. Tsonga cannot conceal his disappointment to his fans further when the teams were introduced. For instance, instead of applauding the French team, he heard a louder applause for the Swiss side. Stan was applauded more, and so was Roger Federer. The Swiss spectators were louder than the French ones.

An incident also took place during the finals when Stan announced a "ball-out", despite the ball inside. According to Tsonga, his first impulse was to check on whether the ball was really out or in. This could have what other players would have done. But, when he checked out the mark, he was booed in his own country. Whether it was the French spectators who started the boos, or the Swiss ones, one thing is for sure, Tsonga was annoyed.

Tsonga further admitted that winning the French crowd's enthusiasm is a must and the probable reason for them turning sour over him is because he's not winning. The only way he can get them back to cheering for him is to improve the quality of his game. Tsonga is hopeful for things to chance sooner.

Citing how Gael Monfils had kept his fans on their feet as he demolished Federer to 6-1, 6-4, 6-3, it just shows how the nature of matches dictated the crowd reactions. While the first match did not receive a louder cheer, the next sets played showed how easily the crowd can get really involved although it was a bit tough to drive crowd involvement during Tsonga's third and fourth sets.

However, the crowd's reaction when Gael played puts hope for Tsonga for positive things to unfold. Despite an almost stagnant increase in his number of fans this year, all tickets however were quickly sold out.

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