Benoît Paire


Benoît "Ben" Paire is a French professional tennis player. He has a career-high singles ranking of World No. 18, achieved in January 2016.
He has won three singles titles, at the 2015 Swedish Open, the 2019 Marrakesh Open and the 2019 Lyon Open. His best result in a Grand Slam has been reaching the fourth round on four occasions. He has a career-high ranking of World No. 65 in doubles achieved on 15 November 2021.
In 2015, Paire was voted Comeback Player of the Year, rising from world No. 118 ATP singles ranking at year-end 2014 to a then career-high world No. 19 at year-end 2015, after a knee injury had sidelined him for much of 2014.

Career

2007–09: Early career

In 2007, the year he turned professional, Paire played at the 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 wildcard into the French Open qualifying draw, this time making it into the final qualifying round, before losing to Fabio Fognini.

2010: Major main draw and Masters qualifying debut

In 2010, Paire played mostly at the Challenger level, reaching his first Challenger final at Arad in July, where he lost to fellow countryman David Guez.
Paire still played many Futures tournaments, making it to six finals.
However, Benoît began making a lot of progress at the 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.
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 came after 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. Paire played his first ATP Masters event in Paris, losing in qualifying.

2011: First Challenger title, Top 100 debut

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 on 2 May 2011, 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 2011 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 Saint–Brieuc event in April, losing to fellow countryman Maxime Teixeira, before beating Teixera later to win his first Challenger title at 2011 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 quarterfinalist Fabio Fognini for the loss of just one game, before falling to Israeli Dudi Sela in the second round, despite leading by a set.
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 quarterfinal 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 quarterfinal 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 2012 French Open, Benoît reached the second round for the first time in his career, losing to eventual semifinalist David Ferrer in straight sets.
Paire didn't play a warm-up event at either Queens or Halle, yet reached the third round at 2012 Wimbledon Championships, 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 semifinalist showing in 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: Maiden Masters semifinal and first top 10 win

Paire started his 2013 season in promising fashion, reaching the semifinals 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 No. 38 on 11 February 2013.
After a first-round exit at the Miami Masters event, Paire reached his second final of the season at the 2013 Orange Open Guadeloupe in Le Gosier. This time he prevailed after a tough 3-set battle with Sergiy Stakhovsky, claiming his third Challenger level title, and reaching a new career-high ranking of No. 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 quarterfinals of an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament for the first time in his career. Paire went on to reach the semifinals 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: Injury and comeback

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 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.