BENOIT Paire insists he is a new man this Wimbledon. The Frenchman’s lengthy rap sheet would suggest otherwise. Unrepentant when sent home in disgrace from the Rio Olympics for putting his own spin on team curfews at the athlete’s village, the 28-year-old from Avignon with the pop star girlfriend Shy’m was at war against the world again in Halle only last month. So put out by some injustice or other that he smashed his racket into the grass courts and net, earning a game penalty, he went down to Florian Mayer of Germany by a 6-0, 6-4 scoreline in just 56 minutes.
His friends - including coach Thierry Champion - had hoped that he was beyond all this. Sure, this was a man who had been kicked off the French Davis Cup by Yannnick Noah for acting like a superstar, a figure whose 2013 Wimbledon campaign came to an end after his third round defeat to Lukasz Kubot when he destroyed all his rackets by smashing them, one at a time, against the Court No 18 wall. But he had been doing so well. They staged an intervention, and told him in no uncertain terms that it was time for this to stop.
“They sat down with me and told me the truth to my face,” said Paire. “I had a setback at Halle. Now my behaviour has to be consistent. Before I was a bit stupid in my way of approaching tennis. However now I am doing a great job – let’s hope it lasts.”
The grass courts of Wimbledon weren’t meant to agree with Benoit Paire. After an early loss to Lukasz Rosol of the Czech Republic in 2014, he said that he wasn’t “at all sad to leave this place where the atmosphere displeases me greatly - simply, I hate Wimbledon and I’m glad to leave as soon as possible”. But - sandwiched by that disaster at Halle - he has compiled three-match winning runs at Stuttgart and now Wimbledon. Aside from a straight sets defeat in the exhibition Hopman Cup event in Brisbane, the two men have met just once - Paire serving for the match against the Scot on the clay of Monte Carlo.
“I am happy with the way I am managing my matches, the way I am keeping my concentration, keeping control of my emotions,” he said. “I could have got annoyed with myself because in the second round because Pierre-Hugues [Herbert] served well and there were not a lot of rallies. Before, I would maybe have smashed a racquet and lost the first set.
“But I have grown in maturity, I asked myself the right questions,” he added. “I know that I no longer have 25 Wimbledons to go and I don’t want people to see me as the guy who only smashes racquets. I am no longer 20 years old, I am not longer a young player who has arrived on tour. I have to get things in order. I am more reasonable, grass is a surface that can help me and I want to make the most of it.
“Mentally I’m different this year,” he added. “I want to play 100% all match. I want to stay focused. I am playing perhaps the best tennis of my career. Even when I was No 18, I had more flaws [he is now ranked 46 in the world] .I have a lot of years left and I think I can do better. I hope that people, in the end, when they remember me, will think first of the Benoît Paire who had moments of genius. “
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