19 Year Old Tennis Star Jakub Mensik Channels His Inner Villain At The French Open And Conducts The Orchestra As He's Flooded With Boos From The Raucous Crowd

ALAIN JOCARD. Getty Images.

While playing in front of a home crowd with everyone behind you has to be a joy, being the villain and silencing the opposition has to be even sweeter of a feeling. Rising Czech tennis star Jakub Mensik had the pleasure of doing that today against the French. 

A little context here, the 19 year old Mensik was up against it in the 3rd set, needing to break to force a pivotal tiebreak against crowd favorite Alexandre Müller. A few review requests from Mensik to the umpire began to upset the crowd who were obviously pulling for the local underdog. 

In tennis I think it's great when you have antagonistic crowds. If other sports can have them, why can't tennis? I think it makes for a better viewing atmosphere more than anything. Now things at times cross the line and become more hostile. In France it's probably worse than just about anywhere. These folks were on him, cheering in between 1st and 2nd serves, booing him non-stop. Mensik found a way to channel his anger towards them and broke to level the set and force the breaker. His response was to bask in the boos and play the orchestra. 

Cinema! Shades of Novak against the same kind of crowd years ago. 

Mensik ended up winning the match in four sets, serenaded in more boos as he met Muller at the net to shake hands. Can't be any better feeling than shutting up a raucous crowd like that. Me personally? I'd crumble and let the boos win because I'm not that guy. But today the French lost and that brings a smile to my face. 

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Mensik is a stud and getting better by the second. He's poised to be a top 10 star in the sport for a long time and if he plays with that kind of personality and emotion it'll be better for the sport.