The Benoît Paire hype knows no borders. It took him a good quarter of an hour to extricate himself from a crowd of admirers of all nationalities, who came to meet him at the exit of Court No. 5 of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. In this barnum crossed by ski resort gondolas flying over gigantic installations, the Avignonnais had just signed a victory full of panache (6-4, 4-6, 7-5) against Thanasi Kokkinakis (96th in the world) and he there was no question of sulking his pleasure by pushing back selfies and autographs for young and old alike.
After the Dutchman Gijs Brouwer (120th) in the first round, the most famous bearded man in the tennis circus offered himself the scalp of a resident of the top 100 for the first time since Denis Kulda in Montreal last summer. Here he is in a final table of Maters 1000 that he had not attended since the same Open of Canada and this double blow does not fall from the sky.
In Puerto Vallarta (Mexico) ten days ago, the 33-year-old player (170th) had found his way to Challenger success. But he had not crossed paths with an opponent better ranked than 246th. On the shores of the Pacific, he had celebrated it in front of a pizza and a series in his hotel room. This time, he will have more people around him given the small French band (Constant Lestienne, Édouard Roger-Vasselin, Daryl Monfils…) who have never stopped carrying him from the corner of this short annex full as an egg .
Starting with Tom Jomby, ex-sparring partner of Venus Williams, in support of the voice at each point, who gives him a hand since the Phoenix Challenger last week. “He’s my buddysaid the interim, walking towards the locker room. I had nothing during those two weeks, Benoît offered to accompany him and I said OK. Since I’ve been with him, he feels good, he runs well. He told me that in Puerto Vallarta he was happy with himself because he was fighting on all points and he especially found this desire. For confidence, this qualification is incredible. »
20 aces and 66% first serves
To build his victory under the Florida sun for 2h16, Paire will have counted on an impeccable service (20 aces, 66% of firsts and above all 84% of success behind them) and used a lot of patience in return against a player which had slightly lower stats (18, 65, 79). We saw him dive on a counter-foot (and hurt his hip) in the first set, line up a winning backhand and 3 aces to escape the worst at 3-3, 15-40 in the last round, and finally conclude without flinch despite an inner fire that would have consumed him nine times out of ten.
The way he won the last game, after being trailing 40-0 and seeing the “Kok” dismiss the first three match points with a smash and two aces before giving way under the opposing assaults, had the air of a revival at confirm in the large table. But that’s another story.
