Pardon Their French

PARIS — The French Open’s charming tradition of opening its gates free to schoolchildren on the first Wednesday of the tournament--Kiddies’ Day, as it’s known--was extended to Court Suzanne Lenglen, where childlike and infantile behavior prevailed in a second-round match between former champion Thomas Muster and current oddball Jeff Tarango.

The players mocked and belittled each other with gusto and had the umpire jumping down from his chair every few moments to check line calls. Tarango mimicked Muster’s trademark grunting and struck a bodybuilder’s pose to make fun of Muster’s physique. Muster glared and swore at Tarango and refused to shake his hand after the match, even after Tarango pursued him across the court.

The match Wednesday was about gamesmanship, not clay-court tennis. It was contested not between the lines but between the ears, with neither player possessing superior skills. The fifth-seeded Muster won, 7-5, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1.

As summed up by Grand Slam supervisor Bill Gilmour: “Unfortunately, it wasn’t one of our better matches. These things do go on a bit when the boys play.”

As befit the tone of the day, the postmatch bickering was more heated and competitive than the match itself. Each player defended his behavior, but they ultimately began to sound like two children squabbling on a playground.

“I think it’s a professional sport. I know everybody is under pressure,” Muster said. “Everyone has to deal with it. We know the history of Jeff. He’s not an easy guy, everybody knows that. There’s no excuse for certain behavior on the court.

“I know that I’m not always that great when I’m on the court. I’m fighting. I’m looking at ball marks. But that’s all within the rules and there’s not a problem with it. I don’t think what we saw today is very professional.”

Tarango’s packed news conference was filled with his articulate but scatological analysis. He was defiant and shocked that he would be cast as the villain in the eyes of Muster.

“I think probably his ego was just a little bruised,” Tarango said of Muster’s anger during and after the match. “He has such a big ego that if you take a little of his limelight, he just doesn’t like it.”

Tarango, who lives part of the year in Manhattan Beach, is accustomed to the limelight. He is a famously antic character, a fact made known to the public at Wimbledon in 1995 when he stalked off a court in a pique in the middle of a match. Tarango accused the chair umpire, Bruno Rebeuh, of conspiring against him and threatened lawsuits. To add to the controversy’s tabloid flavor, Tarango’s French wife, Benedicte, sought out Rebeuh and slapped him twice.

Tarango became only the second person to be defaulted in Wimbledon history and was ultimately fined and banned from the tournament for a year.

Tarango was clearly the instigator of the antics during Wednesday’s match, but it doesn’t take much to provoke Muster, one of the more prickly players on the tour. Mocking Muster is a common tactic used against the Austrian, who is proud of his fitness and frequently jogs in place or does calisthenics between points.

At one point in the first set Tarango, ranked No. 74, mimicked Muster’s stiff-legged walk and assumed an arms-curled-inward bodybuilder pose, which was met with jeers from the packed and rowdy house. In the second set Tarango grew increasingly agitated by Muster’s bellowing and grunting. At one point Tarango grunted loudly in the middle of a point, Muster protested, and the umpire ruled the point be replayed.

It is no understatement to describe Tarango as having been obsessed with Muster’s incessant noisemaking.

“The only thing I had a problem with was when Thomas was grunting when I was hitting the ball,” Tarango said. “At some point, it’s just like an echo in my head, his grunting. It’s just too much. I mean, it’s crazy how much he’s grunting. He’s grunting when I’m hitting the ball, he’s grunting when he’s hitting the ball, he’s grunting when I’m tossing the ball into the air.

“I grunt once, and we have to play a let. Well, I’m sorry. I just thought that was comedy. That’s just ridiculous.”

Ridiculous was the consensus of those who watched the late-afternoon match. The third set featured a pinpoint overhead from Muster that sliced deftly between Tarango’s legs, and a Tarango double fault to lose the set.

Tarango also chose to serve underhand at a tense point in the second game of the fourth set. Muster clobbered the return and broke Tarango’s serve.

Tarango may have inadvertently spoken for both players when he was asked why he served underhand.

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said.