Benoît Paire

Benoît Paire (born 8 May 1989) is a French professional tennis player.

His best result in a Grand Slam has been reaching the fourth round, which he has achieved on four occasions.

In 2007, Paire played his tennis at Futures level, winning one event (the France F10).

In 2008, Paire continued to play primarily on the Futures circuit, but made his first appearances in higher-tier tournaments, losing in the qualifying rounds at the Open 13 and the Open Sud de France, both part of the ATP 250 Series.

Similarly, Benoît made it to the main draw for the first time at Challenger level at Alessandria.

Paire played in his first Grand Slam tournament, at the French Open, receiving a wildcard in the qualifying draw but lost in the first round.

In 2009, Paire began playing more Challenger tournaments, but at Futures level won the Slovenia F3 and lost in three other finals in the space of three months.

Again that year, he received a wildcard into the French Open qualifying draw, this time making it into the final qualifying round, before losing to Fabio Fognini.

In 2010, Paire played most of his tennis at Challenger level, reaching his first Challenger final at Arad in July, where he lost to fellow countryman David Guez.

Paire still played many Futures tournaments, making it to six finals (winning three).

However, Benoît began making a lot of progress at the ATP level, receiving a wildcard into the Open Sud de France before losing in the first round to John Isner and getting through qualifying in Valencia again before losing in the first round.

Paire played his first ATP Masters event in Paris, losing in qualifying.

For the first time, Paire made it to the second round of a Grand Slam, coming through qualifying and beating Rainer Schüttler before losing to big-serving Feliciano López in five sets at the US Open.

This success came after a first-round defeat at Roland Garros for the second time in his career (again after coming through qualifying), as well as a first-round loss in qualifying at Wimbledon.

2011 was Paire's most successful year to date, making more ATP main draw appearances than the rest of his career put together.

It was a year in which he increased his ranking around sixty places and broke into the top 100 in the ATP rankings for the first time in his career.

Benoît kicked off his 2012 season at the Chennai Open, beating French Open quarter-finalist Fabio Fognini for the loss of just one game, before falling to Israeli Dudi Sela, despite leading by a set, in the second round.

Continuing his preparation for the Australian Open, Paire played at the Heineken Open in Auckland, coming through qualifying before beating former world no. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero and 4th seed Juan Ignacio Chela to make it to his first ever quarter-final in an ATP event.

Here he lost to eventual finalist Olivier Rochus in three sets.

At the Australian Open, Paire drew top twenty-five player and former world no. 9 Stan Wawrinka in the first round, falling in straight sets.

Benoît next played two back-to-back ATP 250 events at the Brasil Open (losing in the first round to David Nalbandian), and a week later the Buenos Aires where he was again beaten by Stan Wawrinka.

Benoît played his third clay court tournament in a row at the Mexican Open (part of the ATP 500 Series), losing in the second round to clay court specialist Nicolás Almagro, despite taking the first set.

Next, Benoît competed in back-to-back ATP Masters 1000 events Indian Wells & Miami.

At Indian Wells, Paire lost is in the first round to VTR Open runner-up, Carlos Berlocq, this represented Benoît's first main draw participation at this level.

Despite this, Paire had to qualify in Miami, and lost in the final round of qualifying to David Goffin.

Following the North American swing, Paire returned to the clay in Casablanca, making his second quarter-final appearance of the season.

Benoît resumed the clay court season in Barcelona, losing in the second round for the second year in a row.

The week after Benoît made it to his first ATP World Tour singles final at the Serbian Open, part of the ATP 250 series.

On his way to the final Paire knocked out the sixth seed, third seed and top seed (Pablo Andújar), before losing in the final to Andreas Seppi in straight sets.

Benoît made his seventh clay-court appearance of the season in Nice as a wildcard, losing in the first round to compatriot Roger-Vasselin.

At the French Open, Benoît reached the second round for the first time in his career, losing to eventual semi-finalist David Ferrer in straight sets.

Paire didn't play a warm-up event at either Queens or Halle, yet reached the third round at Wimbledon, his best performance in a Grand Slam event, beating Matthew Ebden and twenty-second seed Alexandr Dolgopolov on the way.

He has won three singles titles, at the 2015 Swedish Open, the 2019 Marrakesh Open and the 2019 Lyon Open, and his career-high singles ranking is World No. 18, first achieved in January 2016.

He has a career-high ranking of World No. 65 in doubles achieved on 15 November 2021.

In 2015, Paire was voted Comeback Player of the Year, rising from world No. 118 ATP singles ranking at year-end 2014 to a then career-high world No. 19 at year-end 2015, after a knee injury had sidelined him for much of 2014.

Paire also appeared in the main draw in three of the four Grand Slams (and for the first time without needing to qualify), his best result at this level coming at the Australian Open, losing in the second round to former world no. 3 and 17th seed, Ivan Ljubičić.

Paire played in five ATP 250 tournaments, making it to the second round in both Stuttgart and Metz, as well as coming through qualifying and making it into the second round in the two ATP 500 tournaments he played, Barcelona and Rotterdam, the latter in which he beat compatriot, top 20 player and former world no. 6 Gilles Simon in three sets.

Paire again missed out on making his first appearance in a main draw at a Masters event, losing in qualifying in both Paris (for the second time in two years), as well as in Monte Carlo.

At Challenger level, Paire made it to a couple more finals, the first at the Open Prévadiès Saint–Brieuc event in March, losing to fellow country-man Maxime Teixeira, before beating Teixera later in the year to win his first Challenger title at Ropharma Challenger Brașov.

Paire followed this victory with another in Salzburg just a month later, defeating Grega Žemlja in three sets in the final.