For him, that changes everything.

Extinct by tennis under a pandemic, Benoît Paire (35th) finally returned to victory on Tuesday, his first for more than two months and his second of the season, in the first round of the Masters 1000 in Madrid.

The French won 6-4, 7-5 at the expense of Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili (31st), titled Sunday in Munich (Germany), and will tackle the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (5th) in the next round.

Not enough to scare him, as long as there is a public in the stands.

He who has been dragging his spleen for several months on the narrow circuit by health constraints and suffers in particular from the closed door often put in place since last summer, this time was able to count on a small benevolent French colony, quickly joined by the hundred spectators installed in the stands of the modest court N.4, who gave voice, clapped their hands, stamped their feet and even pulled out the foghorn to put balm in his heart.

From the first to the last point.

Even Pierre-Hugues Herbert, beaten in three tie-breaks earlier in the day, accompanied him all the way from a corner of the field.

Invigorating vacation in the Maldives

For Paire, it undeniably made the difference. “To be in a Davis Cup atmosphere, it makes me feel good, it makes me love tennis again, that's why I play, it warmed my heart,” he says. Until then, the Avignon, who will celebrate his 32 years on Saturday, had lost ten of the eleven games he had played in 2021. And even his most recent seven. His only victory dates back to the end of February in the first round of the Cordoba tournament (Argentina), against Chilean Nicolas Jarry.

Worse, his misconduct in recent months has caused him to be deprived of Olympic selection by the French Tennis Federation (FFT) ten days ago.

In this context, Paire sees two explanations for his success of the day.

His invigorating vacation in the Maldives, where he did not "do physical" or "touch a racket for ten days".

"It's feeling good in my head that makes me play tennis well" and "not to train like a hard-working man for ten hours," he says.

Selfie with the audience

And the fact of replaying in front of the public, even in small groups.

Obviously all was not perfect, far from it.

The game was even particularly disjointed.

With the Pair side, a sawtooth service - 14 aces and nine double faults, including two in the game where he was used for the match at 5-3 -, sometimes suspect placements, but also pretty inspirations like these paying amortizations most of the time and, most importantly, no hysterics.

We inevitably trembled when, serving to win the game, four consecutive faults at high speed offered him blank to his opponent.

“I wanted to do so well that it paralyzed me,” he says.

But the good thing is that I stayed focused, positive, which I hadn't done for a very long time.

"

This victory is in any case his happiness, as illustrated by his selfie shared with the public.

“It's a renewal, says Paire.

A victory that really does a lot of good.

»Here he is the only French survivor of the first round.

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