Another French Open controversy involving the security was the highlight of the day today as a fan rushed onto the court to take a selfie with Roger Federer after his straight sets victory over Alejandro Falla. This is not the first time Roger Federer has had trouble with fans rushing onto the court at the French. In the his lone French Open win in 2009, a fan ran onto the court and placed a hat was close enough to put a hat on his head. Federer was none too pleased about it and here’s what he had to say, “I'm not happy about it. Obviously, not one second I'm happy about it. It happened yesterday in the practice, too. Just a kid, but then three more kids came. And today on center court, where you would think this is a place where nobody can come on, [he] just wanders on and nothing happens. [It] happened during the finals in 2009 as well for me. So I definitely think this is something that -- something that happened quickly. It's where you do your job, it's where you want to feel safe, and so clearly I'm not happy about it. But nothing happened, so I'm relieved, but it wasn't a nice situation.”

Federer talked to French Open tournament director Gilbert Ysern, and this is what the Swiss number one said about him and what happened, “Gilbert Ysern already came and apologized to me, and we had a quick conversation,” he said. “I just told him what I think needs to happen. I told him about yesterday, as well, which he didn't know about. Yeah, I'm sure they will take the necessary steps now, but this doesn't only mean for this tournament for this year; it means for all the tournaments we play all the years coming up. We need to make sure that it's safe out there and people don't just wander on the court like a free pass, you know. That's how it's supposed to be.”

However, Ysern had a press conference of his own and didn’t think too much of the incident. Here’s what he said at the presser, “I won't react to his comments, I will react to the facts. Of course his comments made sense. He was pissed off with what happened in court. He has good grounds for being unhappy. Well, I prefer to react to what happened. I think, well, some extent it's not the end of the world. Of course we should not make too big a case of that, but it's embarrassing, of course, for Roland Garros, when something like that happens. At this stage there is no reason for us to change the security procedures. They are organized; it was just a lack of judgment this afternoon. Clearly the security people who were on court did not do the job the way they should have done, of course, to say the least. Again, it's a question of lack of judgment from them, and -- well, we all know in tennis, like in other sports, the current approach consists in having the players -- the crowds close to the players, you know, looking for signatures, autographs, and pictures, selfies and all that. Again, I think that's where the lack of judgment this afternoon lays. I mean, the instinct and direction of security people must have been that it was something that was acceptable, which is clearly not.”

Other than the two incidents that we have discussed that involved Federer, there was another incident with a fan during the 2013 final between Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer. A man jumped out onto the court with a fiery flare spurting white smoke before Nadal was about to serve out for the second set. Nadal said that he was pretty scared at the moment as he didn’t know what was going on and turned around and watched a guy with a fire.

The most infamous incident involving a fan happened during the clay swing in 1993 involving Monica Seles. During her quarterfinal match in Hamburg, obsessive Steffi Graf fan Gunter Parche ran from the middle of the crowd during a changeover and stabbed Seles with a boning knife between her shoulder blades going one and a half inches deep. Seles was taken to the hospital quickly after that and recovered in two weeks but did not return to tennis until over two years since after the incident. Since the incident, Seles has said that she believes that the security has not changed much since her incident. These recent incidents are showing it may have gotten better, but there are still problems with it. All in all, Federer should have every right to be upset with the poor security at the French. We all know some kid just wanted to take a selfie with him, but what happens if next time someone has a knife or a flare with them and security isn’t around, absolute madness would ensue.

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About the author
Noel John Alberto
Filipino-American sports journalist from Toms River, NJ. UMBC Graduate and aspiring physical therapist. Tennis editor and multi-sport coordinator for VAVEL USA. Writer for Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Serie A sections of VAVEL UK. Sports aficionado. Host of the On The Line tennis podcast.