“No One Criticizes the Europeans” — Frana Defends South American Fans Against Zverev’s Complaints

Javier Frana (Photo by Matt McNulty/Getty Images for ITF)

For decades, Argentine Javier Frana (58) has traveled the tennis circuit—first as a player, then as a coach—and he’s clear on one thing: European players need to rethink their attitude. In particular, World No. 2 Alexander Zverev could stand to complain a little less.

"Zverev didn't watch Sebastián Báez's match against Gael Monfils at Roland Garros. The crowd there was out of control, but no one criticised the Europeans. Then, we South Americans are the savages for booing Zverev," Frana said during an interview with RG Media and CLAY.

"In South America, a huge effort is made to bring them here, and it’s as if they are disconnected from that. A player is hired, and he plays half-heartedly or doesn’t play well... before criticizing, they should reconsider their behavior," Frana added, referring to the negative comments made by Zverev and Holger Rune during their visit to Buenos Aires for the Argentina Open.

The German complained about the spectators, while the Dane criticized the state of the courts.

Frana is now entering a new phase in his tennis career. This year, he became the captain of the Argentine Davis Cup team and debuted with a win over Norway, led by Casper Ruud: “Ego doesn’t win. It’s a beautiful group.”

After being a top-30 player, an Olympic medalist in Barcelona 1992, and a champion of ten ATP titles in singles and doubles, the left-handed player has divided his time between coaching and commentary. He worked for many years at ESPN, and now he does so at TNT Sports.

Javier Frana spoke about the flaws in the doping system highlighted by the Jannik Sinner case, and shared how he supported Chile’s Nicolás Jarry—who deals with a balance-affecting ear condition much like the one Frana faced during his own playing days.

Q: You are facing a new challenge in your tennis career, as captain of the Argentine Davis Cup team.

Frana: It's an honor, a privilege that I took on with great enthusiasm. I didn’t expect it. And as I matured and processed the decision, I began to feel that I had many more resources, that I had gone through many other experiences that gave me more tools. The process is long-term, to gradually make the guys feel comfortable and secure, offer them a humble vision, listen to them, and create a positive team atmosphere. There is something paternal there, some players are younger than my children.

Q: Argentina has an abundance of good players. It's a nice problem to be the captain of a team where you have to decide which great tennis player will be left out. How do you handle this challenge with so many talented players?

Frana: You have a couple of top 30 players, and another one who’s ranked 40. And out of nowhere, one ranked 75th jumps into the top 50 and joins the discussion. It’s a good problem to have. There’s a very large team. It happened to us after the Australian Open, both Sebastián Báez and Francisco Cerúndolo were injured. And Tomás Etcheverry and Mariano Navone had their chance and did very well. The captain has to choose, but also support, protect, and help. Bring out the best in them. Five players enter the lineup at a time, but those who don’t make it shouldn’t feel neglected. You have to keep following them, supporting them, because next time it might be their turn.

Q: Argentina’s Davis Cup history has been quite turbulent: many ups and downs, lost finals that were thought to be won, divisions, many ego struggles... Do you look at the past and visualize the historical mistakes you don’t want to be repeated under your leadership?

Frana: It all starts with ego. When ego is tamed, or at very low levels, generosity increases, and there’s a willingness to contribute energy for the common good. That process is very important. Sometimes you can have great players, but when energy doesn’t flow naturally and humbly, the team doesn’t reach its full potential. From the best player to the equipment manager, everyone must make the rest feel good. In Norway, my first series as captain, I already felt that we had won before stepping onto the court. There was a very positive atmosphere, a lot of camaraderie. With these guys, ego doesn’t win. It’s a beautiful group.

Q: Was it hard for you to decide to break up the González-Molteni doubles team? There was a lot of controversy when Horacio Zeballos was left out, even though he was the world number one.

Frana: No, because Machi (González) immediately told me when I took over that his cycle in the Davis Cup was over. So I didn’t need to think about it: (Andrés) Molteni and Horacio were the best option.

Q: Did you experience tensions with your teammates during your time as a player?

Frana: I didn’t have many difficulties for most of my career as a player, in general, I got along quite well with everyone. With my doubles partner for many years, Christian Miniussi, we had some differences. That’s something I try to share with the guys: nothing is so dramatic that we can’t find a solution. It’s normal to have friction. Everyone has had a fight in the team at some point, but then you see them, and they’re together in the players’ lounge, sitting at the same table. The message I try to give the guys is that if we have some differences, they will never be so big or so insurmountable that we can’t come to an agreement.

Uncomfortable conversations are always welcome if necessary.

Q: Your ear caused you a lot of suffering during your career. Something similar is happening to Nicolás Jarry, who has seen his performance significantly drop due to vestibular neuritis. Did Jarry ask you about your own experience?

Frana: Yes, he wrote to me, we spoke, exchanged a few things, like the care you need to take, and we compared the discomforts I went through with what he’s experiencing. It’s no small matter, because it causes a lot of insecurity, it worries you, because it affects your balance. I had lost 97% of my hearing at that time, and with it, the ability to filter sounds; everything was just noise. The noise of a stadium, or the sound of plates or silverware, was torture. It was a very tough time for me. I lived with the uncertainty of what would happen if it didn’t get better. More than with tennis, it was about quality of life. How am I going to live with this if the ringing doesn’t stop, if the dizziness doesn’t go away? The noises were intolerable. Tennis took a back seat for me during that time.

Q: Now let's move on to current tennis topics. The case of Jannik Sinner’s positive doping test – everyone had an opinion about it. Some defended the Italian, others criticized him harshly. Many pointed out the irregularities in the system.

Frana: It's understandable to compare it to other cases given how the circumstances unfolded. Did Sinner intend to cheat? I think most people would say no, he's not the type of person who would do that, and I don't think there’s much doubt that he didn’t do it on purpose. But just as it happened to him without intention, many others also didn’t intend to cheat. And that’s where the problems begin when you see that the procedures are inconsistent. It should be like in regular law: a wealthy person should have the same legal standing as anyone else. And well, even though that’s not the case, here we see procedures that led to criticism. The issue is that there were other cases where things were handled differently, and that’s the hardest part to understand.

Q: What measures should the tennis authorities take after this?

Frana: Unfortunately, everything will have to be reviewed in search of transparency. If there’s a system of provisional suspensions, it should be the same for everyone, whether you took a full dose of a forbidden substance, or whether you were given a cream by someone whose hands were contaminated, whatever it may be. It’s a complex issue.

Q: A few weeks ago, American Reilly Opelka caused a stir when he said that doubles shouldn't exist, and that doubles players are the most overpaid athletes on the planet. What do you say to those comments? Doubles gave you a lot, starting with an Olympic medal.

Frana: I respect all opinions, but if someone says that the second serve shouldn’t exist, let’s see what happens with those who only know how to serve and can’t play tennis well. You get into a back-and-forth that’s very difficult. Someone must have been upset by what Opelka said. For me, doubles is a very entertaining game. The doubles I played in my time is nothing like the doubles played now.

Q: Of the three ATP tournament directors in South America, two want to change the surface from clay to hard court. They believe that this way better players will come. Martín Jaite, director of the Argentina Open, wants to keep the clay. Where do you think the Latin American tour should be headed?

Frana: I see it in two contexts: on one hand, they are private businesses that view the events as a business where they have invested a lot of money and need the tournament to succeed. On the other hand, losing clay court tournaments is a big problem for South American players. Sebastián Báez added points in 2024 and 2025, Nico (Jarry) won in Chile in 2023, (Camilo) Ugo-Carabelli earned important points in Rio, as did (Francisco) Comesaña and Navone. Joao Fonseca won his first title in Buenos Aires. It benefits us, and if we lose that, it's like we’re losing a lot. I understand the difficulties that different tournaments might face, especially when they make an effort to bring top players and still they don't win or perform well.

Q: Some people say, ‘no one comes to the South American swing,’ but the truth is that when stars do come, few return with trophies.

Frana: They mock that an unknown player won, yes, but when Alcaraz came, he just won one event out of four, Nadal didn’t win every time. Other good players who came reached decisive stages with a lot of difficulty. It’s complex to play in South America because difficult opponents appear, and the local crowd also stimulates the locals.

Q: Alexander Zverev complained about that after losing at the Argentina Open. ‘The only problem is that the crowd doesn’t know how to behave during a tennis match. It makes it very difficult if you’re not Argentine,’ he said.

Frana: Yes, but Zverev didn’t see the match between Báez and Gael Monfils at Roland Garros (2023), which I experienced from Seba’s box. I’ve watched hundreds of matches in Paris and never saw a match stop for three minutes because the entire stadium, indoor, was shouting the French anthem, people completely out of control, going crazy. And you ask yourself, what is this? Is this not an issue because we’re in Europe? We the savages, the third-worlders who booed Zverev between serves? It’s wrong, yes, that shouldn't happen, but it wasn't the whole stadium doing it. It was 5-10 people. For those of us who were there, it wasn’t really anything.

It's not right, but it wasn’t an impossible environment to play in. Nobody said anything when Báez had to deal with a whole Roland Garros stadium shouting, and Monfils making gestures to the crowd to keep screaming and making noise.

Q: What did Báez say about that moment after the match? Did it affect him a lot?

Frana: It was impossible not to be affected, even we were intimidated there. It was something never seen before. People hitting the signs next to them, banging empty water bottles to make noise. The match stopped, I don’t know, at 30-15 in the middle of a set, and the whole stadium was shouting the anthem. It was an atmosphere where you said, ‘I understand why this kid is struggling to play here and making the mistakes he’s making because he’s in panic from what this environment is like.’ It was deafening. Báez would lose a point or Monfils would win another, and he even put on his show, and you felt intimidated by the crowd's yelling, it was madness. So, yes, all good, in South America we’re noisy, yes. Sometimes we go a bit too far, but well, that’s how it is. It’s not right, but it’s also not something to make such a big comment like Zverev did. Or even (Holger) Rune... a huge effort is made to bring them and they seem disconnected from that. It’s frustrating when a player is hired and plays half-heartedly or doesn’t perform well. Before criticizing, they should review their own conduct.

Q: Do the superstars come to Buenos Aires and Rio just to relax and enjoy the weather?

Frana: Rune came to Buenos Aires, and it's like he played in bursts, then he ended up pulling out of the tour due to injury. I'm not criticizing Rune at all; I'm saying he couldn't perform, but not because of the crowd, neither the courts. No one really criticized him as easily as he criticized the tournament. I don't think he'd do that in Roland Garros, Monte Carlo, Rome, or Madrid. He was seen in Buenos Aires doing something you don't usually see.

Q: Do you feel there's a sense of disrespect toward South Americans in tennis?

Frana: Well, it always happens the same way, we're always the bad guys in the movie, we're the rude ones, and sometimes yes, but other times no. You can't judge us by those things. I insist, it's wrong to whistle between serves, but you can't stop 5, 10, or 15 thousand people from trying to cheer for their local player. If it bothers you, you should do something else, like play chess. If I go to play against Zverev in Hamburg, and they don’t make me feel like I'm the visitor, don't paint it as if it's normal. It'll be their way, and we respect that. What I don't like is when minimal situations are exaggerated.