I've attended just a handful of sporting events outside the U.S. — rugby and cricket in Cape Town, soccer in Ghana — but never one where everyone was rooting against my guy. (Yeah, I know: No cheering in the press box.) In Paris, “Come on, Isner!” is replaced by “Oi, Arnaud.” There is one French cheer that seems to be taught from birth, given that I have seen it most commonly performed by groups of schoolchildren: The responsible adult in the group hums a short tune, cueing the kids to yell “Allez!” This reality was not a surprise, but no less jarring, and helps to accentuate the Americanness of the American players. On my first day here, I watched Frenchman Gilles Simon beat up on Ryan Harrison, a young American player I admire in no small part because he appears to be the next heir to the grand American tradition, currently mastered by Andy Roddick, of the prickly American tennis interview. Here he was after this loss: