French star's sad decline reaches new low

Benoit Paire's tough year continued after the Frenchman was warned for not trying at Wimbledon which led to a fan to scream: "Stop wasting everybody's time".

Paire barely put up a fight in going down to Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 in a match carried over from the day before with the Argentine two sets up.

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Paire, a vocal critic of the restrictions adopted at tournaments during the pandemic, was clearly in no mood to stick around at the All England Club. The third set took just 15 minutes to complete with the Frenchman warned at 5-0, 30-0 to try harder by umpire Mohamed Lahyani.

After the world No.46 then hit consecutive forehands into the net, Lahyani made the ruling, leading to the French player going back to his seat while arguing with the umpire and calling for the physio. While there, a fan sitting close to him to screamed "Stop wasting everybody's time!"

That sparked Paire to leave his seat and return to play for a couple of more points before the loss was made official.

After the match, Paire accused the umpire of being "over-zealous" with the call because he was never going to win the match at that stage and "there was nothing to be done".

"I took a warning for not trying at 5-0, 30-0 in the third set and we have only been playing for 15 minutes," said Paire.

"I have the right to miss two returns in a row. I think it's ridiculous."

Paire hasn't been shy in expressing his frustration over the recent changes made by tennis authorities to keep their tournaments virus free. He usually plays well at Wimbledon and made the last 16 in 2019 and had not been beaten in the first round since 2014.

However, he's clearly been struggling with the mental side of things in recent months. He lost in the first round at Roland Garros and exited Monte Carlo by claiming he didn't "give a damn" about the sport.

French tennis officials also ruled him out of the nation's Olympic squad because of his "repeated deeply ill-judged behaviour". Paire admitted the pandemic had been tough to deal with.

"I have always said these bubble conditions are complicated for me. As long as it is like that, I do my best, I do what I can," he added after the match.

"We are being put in bubbles when everyone (in London) is outside in bars drinking shots, no one is wearing a mask outside, there are spectators talking to me, one centimetre away and they don't have a mask."

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