Benoît Paire at the last Roland-Garros, in October 2021. -

CHRISTOPHE SAIDI / SIPA

The weeks go by and Benoît Paire is still not getting better.

On the contrary.

Once again eliminated in the first round this Sunday in Monte-Carlo, the Avignon resident did not hide that he had no taste for anything at the moment.

Not new, but at this point it's almost worrying.

“Frankly, I don't give a damn about this game.

On the match, we see it, I say nothing.

It doesn't bring me anything tennis, when you see the conditions, he debriefed.

It's absolutely sad when it's usually the best tournament in the world.

Don't give a fuck, and I'll go home.

"

A sanction this time?

However, Paire did not completely botch his match since he only gave in in the third set, after more than three hours of play, against the Australian Jordan Thompson (62nd in the world).

But the heart was not there.

“I don't care… fight, not fight… They say it's Monte-Carlo, but we play in an atmosphere of rarely seen sadness.

This is how the circuit has become rotten, ”he continued.

While a few weeks ago he narrowly avoided a sanction from the French Tennis Federation after apologizing and receiving a call from the president of the FFT to tell him all the bad things he thought about his attitude, Avignon is unable to bypass the conditions imposed by the Covid.

"No magic to find"

"Whether I win or lose, I don't care, it's light years away.

Win or lose in such conditions, I don't care.

I no longer have the spark, ”he insisted.

Why not take a break, then?

“I took 12,000 bullets.

You're going to say he's still talking a lot of money.

I took 12,000 euros to be in the quiet hotel.

Then I go home.

It's perfect… ”he replied, assuming his defiant tone.

Does he hope to find the magic at home at Roland Garros in June?

“I have no magic to find.

I have nothing to find, frankly.

For the dead tennis rats, for sure it's great to come and play here, it's like they're training.

But if you have known the circuit a little bit, and if you know Monte-Carlo, when you arrive and you see what it is like, frankly you want to throw yourself, ”he said.

"Normal life sucks, the circuit sucks"

Especially since the Rainier III court, on the shores of the Mediterranean, "is normally the most beautiful court in the world", he noted.

But this year, even there "we find ourselves in a cemetery atmosphere".

"So we're going to say 'yes, it's like normal life'.

Well very well, I find that normal life is shit at the moment and the circuit is shit the same.

Everything is so bad for the moment.

The only moment of happiness is when I'm at home, when I don't put on my mask, that I don't give a damn about covid, ”he concluded.

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