3rd WIN IN 6 DAYS! Benoit Paire Grabs an Impressive Victory at Swiss Gstaad Open 2021

When tennis resumed post-pandemic, a lot of tournaments were forced to schedule without fans inside stadiums. Not every player was able to adapt well to this change and one such athlete was the Frenchman Benoit Paire.

Paire was struggling for more than one and a half year as he began to receive flak for not putting enough effort in winning points/matches on-tour. Fans could clearly see the lack of motivation from the Frenchman during matches on several tournaments.

Watch this story: Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Gael Monfils, and Others with best shots at Wimbledon Championships 2021

The trend continued till the French Open this year. On the Parisian clay, Paire showed some fight with the help of local crowd as he pushed youngster Casper Ruud to five sets before bowing out in the first-round.

Benoit Paire showed glimpses of his best and reached the Swiss Open 2nd round

The presence of fans in a tennis stadium pushed the Frenchman as he displayed glimpses of his talent at the recently concluded Hamburg Open. Paire reached the quarter-finals, where he lost to Federico Delbonis in a tight three-setter.

Despite the quarter-final loss, the Frenchman seemed to have continued the winning momentum at the on-going Swiss Open in Gstaad. Paire defeated Jozef Kovalik in the first round 6-3,7-6.

Paire was struggling on his first-serve as he made a total of eight double-faults throughout the match. Kovalik defended better and saved seven out of the eight break point opportunities created by the Frenchman.

That single-break earned by Paire was enough to clinch the first set, 6-3. The second set was where both players displayed magnificent clay-court tennis with the Frenchman putting up on a show with a few points.

Even the net approaches were handled with ease by Paire as he looked close to his best form after so long. But, the resilience shown by Kovalik should indeed be appreciated as he forced the set into a tie-breaker.

In the tie-breaker, the Serbian made untimely errors and put Paire on the driver’s seat. With an incredible forehand return winner, the Frenchman sealed the deal and moved to the second round of the Swiss Open.

At Gstaad, Paire got his own fan following as a loyal group of people kept cheering on the Frenchman throughout the match. It’s good for tennis to have Paire back in full form as he tries to gain a few ranking points to boost his momentum on the ATP tour right now.

Also read: SAD! Benoit Paire Squanders 4 Match Points and Loses a Hard-Fought Battle to Federico Delbonis at Hamburg Open 2021 QuarterFinals