Mercurial Frenchman Benoit Paire made an otherwise routine ATP Challenger match on Wednesday anything but.
The 35-year-old former Top 20 player was trounced by eighth-seeded Scot Jacob Fearnley, a Texas Christian University alumnus who led the school to its first NCAA National Championship this year, in the first round of the Open de Rennes in France, a relatively innocuous result between a young player on the rise and a veteran scuffling for form.
But the way in which it played out certainly wasn’t: Despite seving at just 43%, Fearnley won the match 6-1, 6-0 in 37 minutes, winning the last 10 games. He broke serve six times, and in all, Paire won just 21 points in the match.
After doubling faulting on match point, the Frenchman was jeered by the crowd, and sarcastically blew kisses towards them as he sauntered to the net for the handshake.
