Benoît Paire is booed after lackluster performance in Rennes

It is not the first time that Benoît Paire (ATP 263) has attracted negative attention. The Frenchman is one of the bad boys on the tennis tour. Now the 35-year-old has behaved inappropriately once again.

Paire lost in just 37 minutes at the Challenger tournament in Rennes, his home country. He was defeated 1:6, 0:6 by the Briton Jacob Fearnley without a fight. Paire scored a total of 21 points during the entire match – an affront. The Frenchman ended the party with a double fault, as expected, and the fans whistled and booed him.

This is not Paire’s first lackluster performance, and his work ethic has been questionable. Last year at the Challenger tournament in Malaga, he put in a performance to forget. The Spaniard Pedro Martinez was leading 6-0, 4-2 when Paire even gave up. Before that, he had hit the simplest balls several meters out.

In Rennes, Paire responded to the fans’ whistles and boos by sarcastically blowing hand kisses as he ran to the net and congratulated his 23-year-old opponent.

Rennes’ tournament director Nicolas Mahut was also not happy with the performance. The former professional said of his compatriot: “I watched four games and immediately understood that there was no point in staying too long.” It would have been better for him and for the audience if he had retired.”

Paar later responded to the incident on the social media platform X, posting three laughing smileys. He still received 1,130 francs in prize money for his performance. This prompted a fan to make a sarcastic comment: “1,130 francs for 37 minutes: you’re the boss, I want to be like you when I’m rude.”

Nevertheless, Paire is not a record holder after his performance in Rennes. Bernard Tomic, the Australian himself, was no stranger to sadness, once managed to lose the shortest match on the ATP Tour in 28 minutes.