Ivan Dodig launched a stunning attack at the French Open organizers just moments after he and his doubles partner Austin Krajicek secured the men’s doubles title at Roland Garros.
In the French Open doubles final, Dodig and Krajicek defeated Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 6-3 6-1 to win their first Grand Slam title as a doubles duo.
During the on-court trophy presentation, Dodig called out the French Open organizers over treating him “like a tourist in Paris.”
“I’m very sad today. And you will probably all [wonder] about why I’m sad. I’m sad because I didn’t get the treatment like how every athlete and the basics of our sport should be. It means that all players need to have equal treatments to compete against each other. I’m very sad to say this but for 15 days I was travelling to this tournament with the taxi. I was sitting in the middle of some streets in Paris. I was coming late for the warm-up with my partner. I was waiting taxi for 40 minutes. I was very sad. I was feeling like a tourist in Paris. But to let you all, today I’m four times Roland Garros champion and this tournament deserve to treat every player and also every champion like how we deserve. I hope next year you can do better,” Dodig said on-court, per British newspaper i.
Dodig calls out the French Open, tournament director Amelie Mauresmo responds
Dodig is a well-known name in the doubles competition as he has three Grand Slams in men’s doubles and four Slam titles in mixed doubles.
But French Open boss Mauresmo called Dodig’s language “unacceptable” and tried to explain why the Croatian’s accusations didn’t make sense.
“This is not acceptable to have this type of language on the court. We have 19 hotels in a radius of 5km. Anybody can book transportation, all the players, if you’re within these 5km. He’s in another department, which is at the other end of Paris, to the east of Paris. We have made proposals. We have said you can change your hotel, we can find you another hotel in the right area. We gave him solutions. But we have a fleet that’s environmentally responsible. We have an area that’s also environmentally responsible, because we want to serve everybody. We don’t have an unlimited number of cars,” Mauresmo said.