French tennis star Benoit Paire has again attempted to justify his recent erratic behaviour, that has seen him deliberately throw matches on the ATP Tour.
Paire, currently ranked 31st in the world, has won only one of his eight singles matches in 2021, a straight sets win over world No.1165 Nicolas Jarry in Cordoba.
Elsewhere, the Frenchman lost both matches at the ATP Cup, as well as his opening round matches at the Australian Open, Buenos Aires, Santiago and Acapulco.
Paire's lack of effort was especially evident during his loss in the Argentina Open to local favourite Francisco Cerundolo.
After a Cerundolo serve was ruled to be an ace, Paire began gesticulating that the ball was out, and a heated clash took place with umpire Nacho Forcadell.
When Forcadell refused to back down, Paire spat on the mark on the court, yelling furiously. He was later penalised a point after another run-in, and then simply gave up in the final game of the match, serving deliberate double faults.
His final serve was a half-hearted attempt while a ball boy was still on court retrieving the ball from the previous serve.
In an interview with French publication L'Equipe, the 31-year-old admitted that pandemic life has taken its toll on his mental health.
"I lost in the first round, so much the better: I will be able to get out of the bubble fairly quickly and enjoy a few days before Miami," he explained.
"Tennis is not my priority for the moment. Getting out of the bubble is the only goal I have at every tournament."
With prizemoney reduced due to COVID-19, particularly at the lower-level events, Paire says the incentive is not there to make it to the later rounds of a tournament.
"I arrive, I take some money and I go to the next tournament: I do my job," he said.
"There, if you win an ATP 250, you only pocket $30,000. I took $10,000 each time by losing straight (sets). Why rip yourself off like a nut to win barely more?"
Paire's lack of interest was again evident this week in Acapulco, when he was beaten 6-3, 6-1 in 68 minutes by Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Leading tennis reporter Jose Morgado tweeted that Paire's effort was "pathetic."
https://twitter.com/josemorgado/status/1372034997515878408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
After his loss to Cerundolo, Paire tweeted a picture of his career earnings, along with a message in French. Translated to English, the message said: "In the end it's worth it to suck."
He has earned more than $11 million in his career.
It's not the first time Paire has complained about bubble-life. One of the 72 players caught up in hard-quarantine in Melbourne prior to the Australian Open, the Frenchman hit out at tournament organisers.
"I think it's s–t, and what happened is shameful," L'Equipe reported him as saying.
"Overall I'm very disappointed with this tournament.
"A truncated preparation, truncated matches. To me, this is scandalous."
Just last week he spoke out about the difficulties of travelling during the pandemic, and the fact that the majority of tournaments are played in front of a handful of fans at most.
"The ATP circuit has become sad, boring and ridiculous," the 31-year-old wrote on Instagram.
"I know you are going to say you don't realise how lucky you are… but playing in closed stadiums without any atmosphere [isn't] why I play. Having to stay at a hotel or club and be forbidden to go out without risking a fine, where is the pleasure of travelling?
"Tennis [has] become a tasteless job… I need time to adapt to this pseudo ATP circuit but I will make the efforts to try to just rediscover the pleasure of playing tennis."
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