Paire pens poignant essay for Racquet magazine

The ATP Tour's most reliable raconteur/racqueteer hybrid, Benoit Paire, has penned a new essay for *Racque*t magazine's issue No. 15. As intended and expected, it lends insights into what transpires inside that dome perched above his perpetually popped collar.

Therein, Paire touts his favorites to watch as Marat Safin and Marcelo Rios, those mercurial not-quite ghosts of ATP past, and Fabio Fognini and Nick Kyrgios, of the ATP present. That should hardly surprise onlookers regarding Paire's career—The Life and Times of Benoit—in the past few years. He likes to win, though he'd also seize on a best supporting actor award if given that chance.

In this essay, the 31-year-old provides a behind-the-eyes perspective that comes off as poignant, philosophical and downright pensive at times. Writing of everything and everyone from media members to his compatriots, both fellow players and fans, he says:

"I think the media goes too far sometimes. They write an article just because I broke a racquet or ripped my shirt. Do we even care? Plenty of players act up on the court and nothing gets said about it… This maintains my bad reputation. Plus, my relationship with the French fans has been complicated for a while. I was hated because of my behavior. Everyone was against me. I had a tough time processing this, it made me sad. ... And the next year [2019] I had the best Roland-Garros of my life. I’m honestly scared that I’ll never feel emotions like that again."

To be sure, Paire is both thinker and feeler. That can get one in a jam, both internally and externally, in the midst of a pivotal match. Even so, since making his professional debut in 2007, he has carved out a more-than-respectable evenness in major results, with fourth-round results at three of those events, a total of four times.

Paire's knack for candid, conversational writing serves him immensely well here, as when he writes of his commitment level: "Often people would tell me that I had what it takes to be in the Top 10. Except that I’m also missing several things: being serious at practice, preparing physically… These are sacrifices I’m not able to make."

Aside from appearing in *Racquet*'s latest issue, Paire's piece also appears as the forward to a new book by Quentin Moynet, "Histoires dingues et décalées : le tennis comme vous ne l'avez jamais lu". (That translates to "Out! Wild and Nutty Stories: Tennis as You've Never Read Before", and it came out earlier this year.)

Come to it for Paire's good-natured, self-effacing first-person prose. Settle in with his astonishment at how the so-called "Big 3" manage to train themselves, mentally and physically. And stay for the details he delves into about sketchbook tattoos, post-breakup emotionalism, and much more.