It was a far from ordinary day at the office for France’s Benoit Paire at the ASB Classic on Monday.
The world No.55 was taking on British wildcard Cameron Norrie in the first round of the tournament, which he lost in straight sets. Although the talking point of his match was his somewhat unorthodox behaviour. At one point, Paire appeared to be falling asleep during one of the change of ends and even applauded Norrie when he broke him during the first set. Drawing laughs from fans and confusion from his opponent.
“I noticed it definitely,” Norrie said afterwards. “He’s being very casual and then he can suddenly turn it on, break you quickly, be back in the match and serving well.
“I didn’t want to fall into the trap of taking him lightly, when he’s being casual. He’s still serving well and hitting some drop shots extremely well, so it’s tough to stay focused and he is playing quickly.”
One week into 2019 and you've already given up on your resolutions…#ASBClassic pic.twitter.com/NmJTViWZ4x
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) January 7, 2019
It appears that Paire’s antics in Auckland were a dig at officials over their order of play. The Frenchman had complained about being scheduled to play on Monday after taking a 30-hour trip from India. Paire played in the Maharashtra Open last week, where he lost in the quarter-finals to Gilles Simon.
“30h of travel from my hotel room to Pune to Auckland, I left Saturday at 1:30 a.m. from the hotel I arrive Sunday at 3pm in Auckland, 7:30 am jet lag and I am scheduled on Monday!!!!!!!” Paire wrote on Twitter yesterday.
During the match, the 29-year-old hit 39 unforced errors during his 57-minute defeat. Crashing out 6-3, 6-2.
Paire is no stranger to controversy in his career. In 2014 he said he was happy to lose in the first round of Wimbledon because ‘the atmosphere displeases him greatly.’ He was sent home from the 2016 Olympic Games for breaking rules. Then last year Paire was fined $16,500 for his meltdown at the Citi Open in Washington, where he broke three rackets within three minutes.
In Auckland, world No.93 Norrie will next take on Portugal’s Joao Sousa. Sousa, who was the runner-up in the tournament back in 2017, stunned seventh seed Denis Shapovalov 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, in his opening match.
