VIDEO: Virginie Razzano uses underhand serves en route to 1st-round win in Paris
Virginie Razzano put on a show for her home crowd on Monday.
The 85th-ranked Dijon-native resorted to trickery during her first-round match against Veronica Cepede Royg of Paraguay. Her attempts were not successful, but it would not matter in the end.
Razzano pulled out a surprise, underhand serve while leading in the third set. She would go on to lose the point.
Razzano up a break in third set against Cepede Royg. In second set, Razzano used an underhanded serve. Watch: http://t.co/ecdvEHx0xJ #RG15
— ESPNTennis (@ESPNTennis) May 25, 2015
One would think that the unsuccessful attempt would make her shy away from the tactic, but Razzano went for it again, this time on match point. The missed serve, causing a double fault, left the Roland Garros crowd wondering whether to applaud her audacity or simply sit in shock.
http://t.co/vsCqBvpLHy MT @cbfowler: Underhand serve on match point. Long for double fault. We nominate Razzano for @SportsCenter #NotTop10
— ESPNTennis (@ESPNTennis) May 25, 2015
Despite it all, Razzano would go on to defeat Cepede Royg 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, which means we'll get to see if she tries to break out the secret (yet ineffective) weapon against No. 8 Carla Suarez Navarro in Round 2.
Razzano clearly played to her advantage of having the home crowd support, while some may remember Martina Hingis becoming the ire of the French crowd in 1999 for the same move against Steffi Graf.
Of course, the most famous underhand serve belongs to a 17-year-old Michael Chang who served underhand against Ivan Lendl in the fourth round of the 1989 French Open. Incredibly, Chang went on to win the tournament for the only Grand Slam title of his career.