Wimbledon star Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard played role in Grand Slam issuing alcohol ban

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard will be hoping to make headlines for less controversial reasons at Wimbledon after his last attempt at Grand Slam success involved an alcohol ban being issued.

At the French Open just over a month ago, Mpetshi Perricard was defeated by Belgian star David Goffin but the match was marred by complaints from Goffin about the crowd. He claimed that he was spat on and repeatedly insulted on Court 14, before being booed off when he defeated the home favourite.

"Clearly, it goes too far, it's total disrespect,” Goffin said after his win over Mpetshi Perricard. “It's really too much. "It's becoming football, soon there will be smoke bombs, hooligans and there will be fights in the stands.

"It's starting to become ridiculous. Some people are there more to cause trouble than to create an atmosphere. Someone spat out their chewing gum at me. It was getting complicated. That's why I wanted to stay calm. If I started to get angry about it, it could have destabilised me."

Responding to Goffin’s complaints, French Open tournament director Amelie Mauresmo promptly banned alcohol from fans sitting in the stands and was prepared to eject any supporters who exhibited similar behaviour in future matches.

"Alcohol was allowed until now in the stands – not in all the stands – that’s over," she declared. "If anyone exceeds the limit, if anyone doesn’t behave well or if anyone throws things at the players, that's it, they go out. Safety - it's very clear - the instructions are given and there will be no hesitation."

“First of all, we are happy that people are very enthusiastic about watching tennis, about being part of the matches, about feeling emotions and showing emotions.

“But yes, definitely there are steps that they shouldn't go further. So a few things have been put in place: first of all, the umpires really going to be even more strict to further respect to the players and respect the game. So this is something that we're not going to tolerate, to overstep these two things. That's for sure. So umpires have quite an important role in this matter.”

Mpetshi Perricard will be looking to avoid such furore in his Wimbledon third-round clash with Emil Ruusuvuori on Saturday, having already dispatched Sebastian Korda and Yoshihito Nishioka in the first two rounds.

The 20-year-old French star, who stands at 6ft 8" and smashed 51 aces on SW19 debut as a lucky loser this year, has never gone before the first round of a Major before his Wimbledon run. But with a serve often reaching close to 150mph he will not be taken lightly by his opponents on grass.