Benoît Paire’s complicated year continues. Defeated in the first round at the ATP 500 tournament in Barcelona (6-4, 6-4), this Monday morning against the 71st in the world, the South Korean Soonwoo Kwon, the Frenchman once again won. After a bad start to the match and the loss of the first set, Benoît Paire smashed his racket on the clay, violently and many times. At the end of the first game of service, the Frenchman had already hit his racket on the ground.
With Barcelona, the 61st player in the world now remains on eight consecutive eliminations in the first round on the ATP circuit, after Cordoba, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Acapulco, Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo. His last ATP victory dates back to the Australian Open in January, where he reached the third round and beat Grigor Dimitrov.
After Monte-Carlo and a defeat against Lorenzo Musetti, Benoît Paire spoke on social networks about the very complicated period he was going through mentally: “It’s hard, it’s moments in my head where I am feverish and where the game is turning. You may be well prepared, but if you arrive at the game stressed, the pressure catches up with you and you don’t feel good on the court. He also clarified that he “didn’t want to go see a shrink”, but that he was “just hoping to win one or two games” to revive himself.
As for his training pace, the Frenchman assured that he was giving his best. “I felt it less when I was training less. It’s difficult, I’ve always been a matchmaker, I hated losing. In the end, it’s not the anger of losing but the disappointment of finding yourself like that on the court, ”he said.