I love Benoit Paire
OK let's talk about this dude. So recently I started playing a lot more tennis and as is my wont, I got back into it full bore, meaning I bought a racket, I've been watching YouTube videos, I will randomly stop the car next to the tennis court and practice my serve… not that I’m any good but I'm really enjoying playing a sport again and if you know me at all you know that I love to learn, so that process of just trying to improve physical skills has been a really nice thing to have in my life.
At the same time I've been watching a lot of professional tennis, particularly the Australian Open, which I'm enjoying a lot especially after Novak Djokovic was awkwardly (and inevitably) deported for not being vaccinated and lying on his visa (I think what I liked was that Australia stood up to say “just because you’re a rich famous superstar doesn’t mean you don’t follow our rules”). I've been getting to know a lot of new faces like Maxime Cressy, an exciting serve-and-volley specialist, underdogs like Taro Daniel (qualified into the tournament and hasn’t dropped a set yet!), and the next generation of stars like Jannik Sinner, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Daniil Medvedev, and of course I’m rooting for Naomi Osaka to make a good run.
But the guy in the picture above might be my favorite of all, because, frankly, he is hilarious. His name is Benoit Paire, and he's a French professional tennis player who is supremely talented, super weird and awkward, extremely moody, and emotionally fragile. Do you remember The Royal Tenenbaums where Luke Wilson played a volatile tennis player that just gave up at one point? Benoit Paire is that guy in real life.
He throws temper tantrums, he breaks rackets, he's been cited for not putting forth enough effort at the end of matches that he has given up on, and yet he is capable of making some of the most incredible tennis shots you've ever seen in your life. Oh and by the way, take a look at that photo above and note his outfit. That is not a still image from a practice session. That's what he wore to multiple tournaments after losing his sponsorships. His ups and downs I think have become slightly unpalatable to most activewear brands and so he went for a few months in 2021 without any sponsorships at all, and at Wimbledon last year he just went to the Wimbledon apparel shop on site and purchase clothes to wear in the tournament (he has since gotten signed by French fashion brand Cielo and now amusingly wears a shirt that says “Be Normal”).
I know this kind of makes him sound like an asshole, and he definitely is, but I think what I love about him is that he's so much an open wound emotionally on the court; and I appreciate that he often pulls back the lie that is professional sports during late-stage capitalism. For example he will get into arguments with umpires about unsportsmanlike conduct or racket abuse and at one such juncture last year he told the tournament officials, “It doesn't matter I can say whatever I want I pay the fine.”
And he’s not wrong! Yes he is frustratingly lazy on the court sometimes, and stormy, and brilliant, and sometimes just astoundingly stupid. But I feel like he knows his place in the world: a supremely gifted athlete that isn’t really sure if he even wants to be on the court, and is definitely not sure if he wants to try hard enough to rise to the top of the game for the approval of a bunch of people that he kind of despises.
And even with that toxic mix, he can still produce moments like this, where he retrieved a drop shot and returned it in front of people that were shocked he was even able to get to the ball.
Anyway, he won yesterday and now he’s in the 3rd round of the Australian and he’ll be facing Stefanos Tsitsipas (who a lot of people hate as well, but for a different reason, because his dad illegally coaches him during matches to the point that Tsitsipas will take long bathroom breaks while he brings his cellphone and then you can clearly see his dad texting him from the stands) and he’ll probably lose, but for now, I’ll enjoy the unique blend of tennis wizardry and French existential malaise that is Benoit Paire.
And with that, enjoy these ten amazing shots from Paire on YouTube.