US Open: Benoît Paire packs his things before defeat and messes with the referee

“He just packs his stuff together,” marveled tennis expert Naomi Broady on BBC 5 Radio.

“He packs his racquets and a towel and gives his sweaty shirt to a spectator. That’s a shirt I wouldn’t want. Does he know the game is still on?”

This is how Broady commented on the strange scenes at the score of 0: 6, 6: 7, 0: 5 from the point of view of the 33-year-old Frenchman, who once again made a more than dubious appearance.

Right from the start, nothing at all wanted to work for the former world number 18, who has now slipped to 164th place. In just 18 minutes the first set was lost 0:6; Paire scored just eight points, none on Norrie’s serve, and hit just one winner from 16 unforced errors.

Paire takes on the referee

In the second round, Paire at least played along a bit, but clearly lost the tie-break (1:7).

In between, he took on referee Carlos Bernardes; his compatriot had forbidden him to hold a “meeting” with his coach when the game was interrupted – a spectator had passed out in the heat.

So, after he had finished moaning, Paire sat down in the shade in a corner of Court 11.

Paire serves from below into the net

In set three, Paire, who in between served a serve from below into the net, again had little to report. This time it took Norrie 19 minutes to win 6-0.

Further indications of the fatal appearance: 13 double errors and a total of 57 unforced errors.