They had remained numerous for him. In spite of the darkness, the evening, the night fallen a long time ago. It must be said that before, Andy Murray and Dominik Koepfer had put wood in the hearth and already magnificently set Bercy ablaze. And at the end of this first record day with more than 10,000 spectators at the peak, they expected it more than ever. He was Benoît Paire, the whimsical, the brilliant, the annoying, the irritating, all at the same time, but the perfect master of the place to lower the curtain of a historic Monday November 1.
He had promised to set it on fire. The central was waiting for that, jiggling from the first warm-up balls, even saluting with an ovation his first point of the match … on a double fault from Pablo Carreño Busta! But on arrival, the Avignon player sent a few sparks and took two sets (6-3, 6-4). Logically. Despite a few off-manual blows, including a soft backhand volley with an exterior retro effect, the 47th in the world, who nevertheless had a flattering record (8-4) against the Spanish No. 12 seed in the Paris Masters 1000, was too far away Account. “The first feeling that dominates is sadness”, he agreed to the exit. “The sadness of not being able to give enough to all these people who have come, who support me. It warms my heart to find a full stadium, which communicates with me. These are things that I missed a lot. But there is sadness because I feel that I do not have the sufficient level today to make them happy. ”
If he was able for a while to hide his shortcomings under a good quality of first balls, Pair, too inconstant the exchange, in particular in forehand, inevitably ended up yielding. Broken at 3-4 for the count in the first set on a forehand attack from Carreño Busta, the quarter-finalist in Cincinnati did not recover. He attacked the second set askew and immediately gave up his throw-in behind a double fault and a harvested forehand volley.
“Of course I want to go to the Davis Cup
The central thought it was the end, or not far. It even emptied a little. But Paire had a desire for revolts. He offered himself a first break point in the fight at 1-2, which Carreño Busta dismissed by an ace. But the Frenchman was still growling under his beard. On a wire, he saved his serve after a battle of more than nine minutes, then he broke to return to 3-3.
It smelled of epic and epic, the turnaround at 12:10 a.m.! The Avignon resident raged, the public stamped their feet again. But it would be very short lived. In the process, the Spaniard made a perfect game in the engagement and broke white, again. Pair had a 4-4 ball, offered on a double fault by the Spaniard, but he did not catch it. It was the last light of the night. At 12:26 a.m., after a 1:28 p.m. match, the story was already over. For his eighth participation in the Rolex Paris Masters, Paire had undoubtedly imagined a better reunion with the Parisian public. “It will remain a great memory anyway, but there is a lot of disappointment”, he insisted, before turning to 2022 … or perhaps before, with the Blues for the Davis Cup final phase in Innsbruck on November 25. “Of course I want to go to Davis Cup, that’s part of my goals. I think I have the level, the experience, the skills to be in this team, I think I can contribute something. But I’m not the only one who wants to and it’s not me who decides, it’s Sébastien (Grosjean, the captain) ”, he said, yet clearly posing as a candidate for the post.