No more a serial racquet smasher, Benoit Paire wants his tennis to do the talking in 2018

Benoit Paire, who is ranked 41 in the world, forgot to enter the Tata Open Maharashtra and would have had to play the qualifiers before a fortuitous wildcard gave him a direct entry and first-round bye.

Benoit Paire, who has been opening his season in India for the last five years and has reached the final in Chennai in 2013, ’16 and ’17, played his first two matches on Court 1, yet drew a wildly cheering audience on both days and threw his sweatbands into the crowd after a particularly difficult victory.

Benoit Paire, who has won only one ATP World Tour title in his career, is a cult figure – one that most tennis fans just can’t ignore.

Some call him a serial racquet-smasher, some talk about his beard game or tantrums or hatred for Wimbledon, some others will say the 28-year-old is a fountain of wasted potential, but no one will ever claim that Paire is boring.

But everything about the flamboyant Frenchman, from his social media to his full-blooded backhand to his quips in media interactions, is entertaining, outrageous, fun. As one adoring young fan who screamed “Come on, Ben-wa” after every point in his first game said, “Kya hai, yaar!” (What a player!)

Two tough wins in Pune

In Pune, the fourth seed reached the semi-finals – his fourth in India – after two hard-fought matches. Against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics, Paire survived five match points and the opponent’s altercation with the chair umpire over one of them, to win 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-6(6) in three hours. In the quarter-final he beat Robin Haase 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 in a thoroughly even game where both were broken five times and each won 50% of the points (98/196).

On Friday, he will play second seed and US Open finalist Kevin Anderson, a relatively easy path he is glad about. “I played only two matches. Normally I would play five,” he said after the match with a smile.

That he is even in the semis is a wonder, because he spent his off-season injured and is currently suffering from a right foot niggle which saw him hobble off after the match. He also has nasty blisters on his palm and said he was exhausted and didn’t play as well as he would have liked.

But then again, with Paire nothing is really a surprise. He has the thrilling game to fight it out with the top guys, but tends to lack the mental fortitude to back his play. His frustrations, at himself, the opponent or the umpire, are more often than not taken out on his hapless racquets.

A photo of his smashing all his racquets against a wall at Wimbledon had gone viral, as have several video compilations of the best of his smashes. He treated fans to one of these low-key displays in Pune as well, in his doubles match with Arjun Kadhe.

The mental angle

Ask him about what was going on his head when he was battling it out in his first two matches with less than 100% fitness, or any other match for that matter, and the answer tells you that he is well aware of his reputation and the intent of the question.

“Mentally, I am good now. Before I [used to] become pissed after one game because I didn’t out the ball into court. Today [Haase] broke me 0-40 first game of the match, I didn’t say anything, I didn’t break any racquet, I didn’t say any bad word to the chair umpire,” he said, laughing, on Thursday after his quarter-final.

“I am very happy this time it was Robin [who lost his temper and shouted at the chair umpire]. I am happy because I fought well. I am not playing my best tennis for sure but when you don’t practice, you don’t feel perfect but most important thing is to win,” he added.

The 2015 ATP Comeback Player of the year then became a lot more philosophical about his game at this stage of his career. Although not a loose cannon like a Bernard Tomic, Paire has always been the wild child of his generation who tended to be in the news for his antics on court rather than results. At the start of the year, he had posted on Instagram about how tennis makes him crazy. When asked about it, he goes on to elaborate on his “complicated” relationship with tennis.

“Now I am 28 and I understand that the most important thing is to win the matches, don’t care if you play good or you play bad. Before I was just looking for a sensation and now I am more looking for the results,” he said. “My career is always up and down. Sometimes I play good and sometimes I don’t. Now I think I am more focused on the tennis, the most important thing for me is the tennis.”

Paire was once ranked world No 18 but feels he is playing even better now than he was then. “For me it’s important to play every tournament fully because when you see my results I have a lot of defeats in the first round. So I want to play every match and even if I don’t play good, just to fight and win,” he added.

This sounds a lot like what he has said almost five years ago in 2013 at a tournament at home where his parents came to watch him. “I know I have improved a lot in my attitude and it was important this week to show my parents I am no longer the Benoit who goes crazy and breaks racquets,” he had said after a loss to Richard Gasquet in the Montpellier final. “I really needed them to see how I have changed and I need to keep going. I feel I am on the right track if I stay calm and focused.”

But then the same Paire was raging about how much he hates Wimbledon in 2014 and back to his smashing best.

“I don’t like Wimbledon. When I enter on the court they tell us we have to be careful with the courts but the courts are not so good. Once I got a $1,000 fine for saying ‘merde’ (sh** in French). Here all they like is giving fines. Maybe thanks to that they will be able to fix the courts,” he had said in London.

Of course, the very next year he went on a unprecedented run, rising from 126 to 19 after a knee injury had sidelined him for much of 2014. He returned to the grass courts which were supposedly “bad for his knee” and even reached the fourth round in 2017, losing to Andy Murray – his best performance at a Grand Slam after US Open 2015.

But maybe this new, Zen-like Paire this time around is here to stay. When asked about his ranking goals for 2018, he gave a very mature reply. “Only thing I want to do this year is be focused and give my 100%. At the end of the year, [it doesn’t matter] if my ranking is good or bad, but if I play good and gave my everything, I would be happy even if my ranking is not very good,” he said.

It is only January and there is a long time to go, but if a 100% physically and mentally sound Paire hits the ground running, he could actually win another career title soon. Till then, let’s enjoy the colour Paire adds to tennis.