A FRENCH OPEN star embarrassingly had to retire after injuring himself by kicking a barrier.
Arthur Rinderknech faced No28 seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry in the second round at Roland Garros.
The French tennis ace, 28, was hoping to reach round three at his home Grand Slam for the first time.
And he looked well on course to dump out Argentine Etcheverry when he took the first set 6-3 and then claimed the second with a mammoth 10-8 tie-break.
Incredibly, though, Rinderknech won just one more game.
And it was largely down to his own moment of madness.
That is because after losing the third set 6-1, 6ft 5ins giant Rinderknech fell an early break down in the fourth then dumped a tame backhand into the net.
And Rinderknech responded by trotting over to the side of the court and booting the advertising hoarding with his foot in anger.
The unseeded world No69 clearly regretted the decision instantly as he keeled over to clutch around his left trainer.
Rinderknech was in significant pain and at the change of ends trailing 5-0, he needed a medical time-out as the French Open physio strapped up his big toe.
But it did not do enough to alleviate the self-inflicted pain.
So much so that after coming back out to play – Etcheverry had delighted the infamous French Open crowd with some air tennis shots during the break – Rinderknech concluded he could not carry on.
So he hobbled dejectedly to the net, removed his headband, threw his racquet aside and shook hands with his opponent with the score 3-6 6-7 6-1 5-0.
And Rinderknech slowly made his way off court with his bags, surely utterly annoyed with himself – and with very little sympathy on social media.
One tennis fan wrote: “Sorry, but the way Arthur Rinderknech got hurt, it’s probably the dumbest injury I’ve seen this year.”
Another said: “The Rinderknech story is absurd! He got mad, kicked a sign, hurt his foot and had to retire with a self-inflicted injury. Oh my.”
And a third added: “How shameful and childish behaviour from him.”
His sorry departure was a far cry from the incredible scenes early on under the lights on Court 7 when Rinderknech claimed the second set then leapt and bounded back to his chair.
But rather than closing out victory, his rush of blood to the head cost him a place in round three and an extra £41,000 – instead taking home £94,000 as Etcheverry booked a third-round date with No7 seed and two-time French Open finalist Casper Ruud.
Rinderknech fears he may have broken his toe in the painful process and withdrew from the doubles with Nuno Borges.
He told L’Equipe: “I feel very good physically but I just messed up.
“I kicked into the wall, a little annoyed, at 2-0 when I got broken in the fourth set.
“I don’t really know at the moment, but I hope I didn’t break the toe myself. Afterwards, I could no longer put my foot on the ground.”
His pitiful exit also meant just one French man won their round two match – world No79 and French No8 Corentin Moutet.
However, that was better than the Brits – with all six men and women in the singles crashing out without winning a single match between them.
In fact, Andy Murray, Dan Evans and Harriet Dart all lost in straight sets while Katie Boulter, Cameron Norrie and Jack Draper went the distance but lost deciders.
So the British group banked a total of £372,000 for winning FIVE out of 21 sets in a nightmare showing in Paris.
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