Benoît Paire
Benoît Paire is a French professional tennis player.
His best result in a Grand Slam has been reaching the fourth round, which he has achieved on four occasions. He has won three singles titles, at the 2015 Swedish Open, the 2019 Marrakesh Open and the 2019 Lyon Open, and his career-high singles ranking is World No. 18, first achieved in January 2016.
In 2015, Paire was voted Comeback Player of the Year, rising from world no. 118 in year-end 2014 to a then career-high world no. 19 in year-end 2015 in the ATP singles rankings after a knee injury had sidelined him for much of 2014.
Career
2007–09: Early career
In 2007, Paire played his tennis at Futures level, winning one event.In 2008, Paire continued to play primarily on the Futures circuit, but made his first appearances in higher-tier tournaments, losing in the qualifying rounds at the Open 13 and the Open Sud de France, both part of the ATP 250 Series. Similarly, Benoît made it to the main draw for the first time at Challenger level at Alessandria. Paire played in his first Grand Slam tournament, at the French Open, receiving a wildcard in the qualifying draw but lost in the first round.
In 2009, Paire began playing more Challenger tournaments, but at Futures level won the Slovenia F3 and lost in three other finals in the space of three months. Again that year, he received a wild card into the French Open qualifying draw, this time making it into the final qualifying round, before losing to Fabio Fognini.
2010
In 2010, Paire played most of his tennis at Challenger level, reaching his first Challenger final at Arad in July, where he lost to fellow country-man David Guez.Paire still played many Futures tournaments, making it to six finals. However, Benoît began making a lot of progress at ATP level, receiving a wildcard into the Open Sud de France before losing in the first round to John Isner and getting through qualifying in Valencia again before losing in the first round. Paire played his first ATP Masters event in Paris, losing in qualifying.
For the first time, Paire made it to the second round of a Grand Slam, coming through qualifying and beating Rainer Schüttler before losing to big-serving Feliciano López in five sets at the US Open. This success followed a first-round defeat at Roland Garros for the second time in his career, as well as a first-round loss in qualifying at Wimbledon.
2011
was Paire's most successful year to date, making more ATP main draw appearances than the rest of his career put together. It was a year in which he increased his ranking around sixty places and broke into the top 100 in the ATP Rankings for the first time in his career. Paire also appeared in the main draw in three of the four Grand Slams, his best result at this level coming at the Australian Open, losing in the second round to former world no. 3 and 17th seed, Ivan Ljubičić. Paire played in five ATP 250 tournaments, making it to the second round in both Stuttgart and Metz, as well as coming through qualifying and making it into the second round in the two ATP 500 tournaments he played, Barcelona and Rotterdam, the latter in which he beat compatriot, top 20 player and former world no. 6 Gilles Simon in three sets. Paire again missed out on making his first appearance in a main draw at a Masters event, losing in qualifying in both Paris, as well as in Monte Carlo. At Challenger level, Paire made it to a couple more finals, the first at the Open Prévadiès Saint–Brieuc event in March, losing to fellow country-man Maxime Teixeira, before beating Teixera later in the year to win his first Challenger title at Ropharma Challenger Brașov. Paire followed this victory with another in Salzburg just a month later, defeating Grega Žemlja in three sets in the final.2012: First ATP Tour singles final
Benoît kicked off his 2012 season at the Chennai Open, beating French Open quarter-finalist Fabio Fognini for the loss of just one game, before falling to Israeli Dudi Sela, despite leading by a set, in the second round. Continuing his preparation for the Australian Open, Paire played at the Heineken Open in Auckland, coming through qualifying before beating former world no. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero and 4th seed Juan Ignacio Chela to make it to his first ever quarter-final in an ATP event. Here he lost to eventual finalist Olivier Rochus in three sets.At the Australian Open, Paire drew top twenty-five player and former world no. 9 Stan Wawrinka in the first round, falling in straight sets. Benoît next played two back-to-back ATP 250 events at the Brasil Open, and a week later the Buenos Aires where he was again beaten by Stan Wawrinka. Benoît played his third clay court tournament in a row at the Mexican Open, losing in the second round to clay court specialist Nicolás Almagro, despite taking the first set. Next, Benoît competed in back-to-back ATP Masters 1000 events Indian Wells & Miami. At Indian Wells, Paire lost is in the first round to VTR Open runner-up, Carlos Berlocq, this represented Benoît's first main draw participation at this level. Despite this, Paire had to qualify in Miami, and lost in the final round of qualifying to David Goffin.
Following the North American swing, Paire returned to the clay in Casablanca, making his second quarter-final appearance of the season. Benoît resumed the clay court season in Barcelona, losing in the second round for the second year in a row. The week after Benoît made it to his first ATP World Tour singles final at the Serbian Open, part of the ATP 250 series. On his way to the final Paire knocked out the sixth seed, third seed and top seed, before losing in the final to Andreas Seppi in straight sets. Benoît made his seventh clay-court appearance of the season in Nice as a wildcard, losing in the first round to compatriot Roger-Vasselin.
At the French Open, Benoît reached the second round for the first time in his career, losing to eventual semi-finalist David Ferrer in straight sets. Paire didn't play a warm-up event at either Queens or Halle, yet reached the third round at Wimbledon, his best performance in a Grand Slam event, beating Matthew Ebden and twenty-second seed Alexandr Dolgopolov on the way. He lost to American qualifier Brian Baker in the third round. He followed up his impressive grass-court run at Wimbledon with a semi-finalist showing at s-Hertogenbosch, losing to eventual winner David Ferrer in three sets.
On 16 July 2012, Benoît defeated eighth-seeded Bernard Tomic in straight sets in the first round of the Swiss Open. He lost against Latvian, Ernests Gulbis, in the second round. Paire entered an ATP Tour event as the number one seed for the first time in his career at the Farmers Classic in July, but lost at the first hurdle to American Michael Russell.
2013
Paire started his 2013 season in promising fashion, reaching the semi-finals in his first tournament of the year in Chennai before making his 2nd ATP World Tour final at Montpellier. Playing in front of his parents, he lost in straight sets to an in-form Richard Gasquet. "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", he said. His performance in this tournament rose him to a career-high ranking of 38 in the world.After a first-round exit at the Miami Masters event, Paire reached his second final of the season at the Le Gossier Challenger event in Guadeloupe. This time he prevailed after a tough 3-set battle with Sergiy Stakhovsky, claiming his third challenger level win and reaching a new career-high ranking of 33 on 1 April 2013.
At the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, Paire defeated World No. 7 Juan Martín del Potro 6–4, 7–6 to record his first career singles win over a Top 10 player and reach the singles quarter-finals of an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament for the first time in his career. Paire went on to reach the semi-finals where he was beaten in two tight sets by Roger Federer. At the tournament in Stockholm in October, the 6th-seeded Paire beat the 2nd-seeded Milos Raonic of Canada in the quarterfinals to reach the semifinals, where he lost to Grigor Dimitrov in three sets.
2014
Paire began his 2014 season in the Chennai Open, reaching the quarterfinals before losing to Marcel Granollers in three sets. At the Australian Open, Paire battled past Nick Kyrgios from 2 sets down in the second round to beat the Australian teenager, however, lost to Roberto Bautista-Agut in straight sets in the third round. He missed every tournament in February and March due to a knee injury, including Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami. He made his return during the clay court season, first playing at the Grand Prix Hassan II, making it to the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Guillermo García-López.This was followed by an appearance in Monte-Carlo, losing his opening match to qualifier Albert Montañés, the same player he'd beaten in his opening match in Casablanca. A recurrence of his knee injury forced Paire to retire towards the end of his first match in Barcelona, and subsequently withdraw from the Portugal Open. He started the Madrid Masters against Andreas Seppi, however further recurrence of his knee injury forced him to retire after just two games. He withdrew from the Rome Masters in order to allow his knee to recover, however did start the French Open, ending a run of four consecutive defeats by beating Alejandro Falla in the first round before losing to Roberto Bautista Agut in his next match. Paire suffered three consecutive losses during the grass court season, at queen's Club, 's-Hertogenbosch and Wimbledon respectively, followed by a further first round loss in Stuttgart. In June 2014, after he lost in the first round at Wimbledon, he said that he was happy to lose because he "hates" the tournament.
At the Rogers Cup, Paire had to make it through the qualifying draw due to his ranking having dropped to 98th in the world. He beat Falla in the first round before losing a tightly contested match against third seed Stan Wawrinka. He qualified for Cincinnati, however, lost his first round match against wildcard Steve Johnson, resulting in Paire dropping out of the top 100 for the first time since April 2012. At the US Open, Paire made a promising start by beating 24th seed Julien Benneteau in five sets, 7–6, 5–7, 6–4, 4–6, 6–4. However, he fell in the second round to Spaniard Pablo Carreño Busta.
2015: First ATP Tour singles title
Paire, won his first ATP Tour singles title in July at the Swedish Open, defeating the top three seeds, including second-seeded Tommy Robredo in the final.Paire defeated the 2014 US Open singles runner-up and 4th seed Kei Nishikori in the 1st round of the US Open, before going on to defeat Tommy Robredo in the 3rd round of the US Open to reach the singles 4th round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. He lost his 4th-round match to his compatriot, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in straight sets.
2016
At the 2016 Australian Open, although he was seeded 17th, Paire lost in the first round in three tie-breaks to American teen-aged wildcard Noah Rubin, ranked # 328 in the world.On 19 July, Richard Gasquet withdrew from the 2016 Olympics tennis tournament because of his back injury. Gasquet would be replaced by Paire in the men's singles draw. On Aug 9, Paire had two match points in the third and final set of his Olympic tournament second round match against Fabio Fognini, but Fognini ended up winning the match. Moments after being knocked out of the Olympic tournament, the French Tennis Federation booted Paire out of his country's Olympic Games squad and ordered him to leave the athletes' village for "flouting the rules" and "poor behaviour".
2017
Paire entered his first ATP World Tour tournament of 2017 by playing in the Chennai Open, where he lost in the singles semifinals to the eventual champion Roberto Bautista Agut. At the Australian Open Paire lost in the third round to the eighth seed Dominic Thiem. Paire lost three other ATP World Tour singles semifinals in the first half of 2017 - Open Sud de France, Grand Prix Hassan II and MercedesCup. Paire, who was attempting to reach his first career Grand Slam singles quarter-final, lost in straight sets in the fourth round of Wimbledon to top-seeded defending champion Andy Murray. In September, Paire reached his first and only ATP World Tour singles final of 2017 at the Moselle Open, losing the final to the German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk in straight sets.2018
At the 2018 Washington Open, Paire smashed his tennis rackets onto the court 7 times and was fined $16,500 for his actions.2019: Second and third ATP Tour singles titles
At the Grand Prix Hassan II, Paire won the second ATP Tour singles title of his career by defeating the defending champion Pablo Andújar in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 in the final held on April 14.At the Lyon Open, the unseeded Paire won the third ATP Tour singles title of his career. At that tournament, he defeated two seeded players – Denis Shapovalov in the quarterfinals and rising teen Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final.
At the French Open, the unseeded Paire advanced to the round of 16, where he was defeated in five sets by no.7 seed Kei Nishikori.
Playing style
Paire's style of play is characterized by its flashiness, unpredictability and at times inconsistency. The main strength of his game is his double-handed backhand, known for its speed and spin. Paire often uses topspin backhands crosscourt at great speed and acute angles to set up a powerful backhand down-the-line to finish off points. In contrast, his forehand is relatively less powerful and consistent, particularly when played on the defense, to the extent that he's been known to hit backhands inside-out.Paire is also known for his ability and willingness to play drop shots often on both the forehand and backhand wing throughout matches. When volleying, he also favors drop over punching volleys and is infamous for hitting them with extreme backspin, sometimes even causing the ball to spin back across the net. However, these drop shot attempts sometimes give opponents the advantage when they are hit too deep, causing Paire to lose the point. He is also fond of hitting between-the-legs shots, both forward and with his back facing the net.
Paire possesses a powerful but inconsistent first serve and serves-and-volleys on occasion.
Above all, Paire is known for his flashiness on the court that plays to the crowd. He is known to hit a variety of high-risk shots and trick shots, such as the frontal and back tweener, jumping tweener, drop shots that backspin towards the net and topspin backhands at extremely acute angles, even when unnecessary to win the point.
ATP Tour career finals
Singles: 9 (3 titles, 6 runner-ups)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Loss | 0–1 | 2012 Serbia Open – Singles| | Serbia Open, Serbia | 250 Series | Clay |  Andreas Seppi | 3–6, 2–6 |
| Loss | 0–2 | 2013 Open Sud de France – Singles| | Open Sud de France, France | 250 Series | Hard |  Richard Gasquet | 2–6, 3–6 |
| Win | 1–2 | 2015 Swedish Open – Men's Singles| | Swedish Open, Sweden | 250 Series | Clay |  Tommy Robredo | 7–6, 6–3 |
| Loss | 1–3 | 2015 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships – Singles| | Japan Open, Japan | 500 Series | Hard |  Stan Wawrinka | 2–6, 4–6 |
| Loss | 1–4 | 2017 Moselle Open – Singles| | Moselle Open, France | 250 Series | Hard |  Peter Gojowczyk | 5–7, 2–6 |
| Win | 2–4 | 2019 Grand Prix Hassan II – Singles| | Grand Prix Hassan II, Morocco | 250 Series | Clay | Pablo Andújar | 6–2, 6–3 |
| Win | 3–4 | 2019 Lyon Open – Singles| | Lyon Open, France | 250 Series | Clay |  Félix Auger-Aliassime | 6–4, 6–3 |
| Loss | 3–5 | 2019 Winston-Salem Open – Singles| | Winston-Salem Open, United States | 250 Series | Hard |  Hubert Hurkacz | 3–6, 6–3, 3–6 |
| Loss | 3–6 | Jan 2020 | Auckland Open, New Zealand | 250 Series | Hard | Ugo Humbert | 6–7, 6–3, 6–7 |
Doubles: 3 (1 title, 2 runner-ups)
ATP Challenger Tour and ITF Futures Tour finals
Singles: 26 (12–14)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | France F10, Bourg-en-Bresse | Futures | Clay | Éric Prodon | 2–6, 6–2, 6–3 | |
| Loss | 1–1 | Italy F17, Bassano | Futures | Clay | Patrick Prader | 5–7, 3–6 | |
| Win | 2–1 | Slovenia F3, Koper | Futures | Clay |  Marco Mirnegg | 6–7, 6–4, 6–3 | |
| Loss | 2–2 | Great Britain F8, Felixstowe | Futures | Grass | Alexander Sadecky | 1–6, 3–6 | |
| Loss | 2–3 | Austria F7, St. Pölten | Futures | Clay |  Aljaž Bedene | 4–6, 0–6 | |
| Loss | 2–4 | Portugal F4, Porto | Futures | Clay |  Daniel Smethurst | 6–3, 4–6, 4–6 | |
| Loss | 2–5 | Germany F18, Hambach | Futures | Carpet | Peter Gojowczyk | 4–6, 4–6 | |
| Win | 3–5 | USA F1, Plantation | Futures | Clay | Marco Mirnegg | 6–2, 6–7, 7–5 | |
| Win | 4–5 | Portugal F1, Faro | Futures | Hard |  Adrian Cruciat | 3–6, 6–4, 6–2 | |
| Loss | 4–6 | Portugal F2, Lagos | Futures | Hard | Guillermo Alcaide | 4–6, 6–4, 3–6 | |
| Win | 5–6 | Portugal F3, Albufeira | Futures | Hard |  Thomas Schoorel | 7–6, 6–4 | |
| Loss | 5–7 | Spain F14, Vic | Futures | Clay | Sergio Gutiérrez Ferrol | 6–2, 5–7, 5–7 | |
| Loss | 5–8 | 2010 Arad Challenger – Singles| | Arad, Romainia | Challenger | Clay | David Guez | 3–6, 6–1, 3–6 |
| Loss | 5–9 | 2010 Concurso Internacional de Tenis – San Sebastián – Singles| | San Sebastián, Spain | Challenger | Clay | Albert Ramos | 4–6, 2–6 |
| Loss | 5–10 | 2011 Open Prévadiès Saint–Brieuc – Singles| | Saint Brieuc, France | Challenger | Clay | Maxime Teixeira | 3–6, 0–6 |
| Win | 6–10 | 2011 Ropharma Brașov Challenger – Singles| | Brașov, Romania | Challenger | Clay | Maxime Teixeira | 6–4, 3–0 ret. |
| Win | 7–10 | 2011 ATP Salzburg Indoors – Singles| | Salzburg, Austria | Challenger | Hard | Grega Žemlja | 6–7, 6–4, 6–4 |
| Win | 8–10 | 2013 Orange Open Guadeloupe – Singles| | Le Gosier, Guadeloupe | Challenger | Hard |  Sergiy Stakhovsky | 6–4, 5–7, 6–4 |
| Win | 9–10 | France F1, Bressuire | Futures | Hard | Maxime Teixeira | 6–3, 0–6, 6–2 | |
| Win | 10–10 | 2015 Trofeo Faip–Perrel – Singles| | Bergamo, Italy | Challenger | Hard |  Aleksandr Nedovyesov | 6–3, 7–6 |
| Loss | 10–11 | 2015 Challenger La Manche – Singles| | Cherbourg, France | Challenger | Hard |  Norbert Gombos | 1–6, 6–7 |
| Win | 11–11 | 2015 Open BNP Paribas Banque de Bretagne – Singles| | Quimper, France | Challenger | Hard | Grégoire Barrère | 6–4, 3–6, 6–4 |
| Loss | 11–12 | 2015 Brest Challenger – Singles| | Brest, France | Challenger | Hard |  Ivan Dodig | 5–7, 1–6 |
| Win | 12–12 | 2015 Internationaux de Tennis de Vendée – Singles| | Mouilleron le Captif, France | Challenger | Hard | Lucas Pouille | 6–4, 1–6, 7–6 |
| Loss | 12–13 | 2017 Verrazzano Open – Singles| | Sophia Antipolis, France | Challenger | Clay | Aljaž Bedene | 2–6, 2–6 |
| Loss | 12–14 | 2019 Casino Admiral Trophy – Singles| | Marbella, Spain | Challenger | Clay | Pablo Andújar | 6–4, 6–7, 4–6 |
Doubles: 3 (1–2)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | Portugal F1, Faro | Futures | Hard | Thomas Cazes-Carrère | Piotr Gadomski Mateusz Szmigiel | 7–6, 7–6 | |
| Loss | 1–1 | 2011 Orbetello Challenger – Doubles| | Orbetello, Italy | Challenger | Clay | Romain Jouan | Julian Knowle Igor Zelenay | 1–6, 6–7 |
| Loss | 1–2 | 2011 Ropharma Brașov Challenger – Doubles| | Brașov, Romania | Challenger | Clay |  Dušan Lojda | Victor-Mugurel Anagnastopol Florin Mergea | 2–6, 3–6 |
Performance timelines
Singles
Current through the 2019 Cincinnati Masters.Doubles
Wins over top 10 players
- He has a 6–37 record against players who were ranked in the top 10 at the time the match was played.