Benedict, the evening was full of emotions with tears at the end …
PB: These are tears that are good. This was complicated, even during the game. Already playing Gaël I like a lot and I respect a lot. I was disappointed to miss the match. I would have still been happy with my season. It’s a shame to end up like that. I tried to hang on, to do what I could. Finally, I’ve been running the game, I spilled the stuff and it felt good for the future. It was just happiness today.
These tears, this sums up your evolution over the last few months or is it compared to what had happened at Bercy in 2013?
PB: That’s all. Having spent one bad season last year with injuries, the knee, I did not know where I was. Being here at Bercy, two years ago I had been whistling. Last year, I was looking at and wondering when I could replay tennis. Today, I saw the audience who supported me when I arrived on the court, when it was difficult. There were a few whistles 6-2, 4-0, but that’s not what we must remember. They supported me anyway. It was too hard to finish. I cracked a bit to see this atmosphere, the audience chanted my name. It is a recognition of everything I’ve done for a year.
It is not what happens in your head to 4-0 in the second? Something snaps this rise?
BP: At that time, I tell myself that it must not break racket I will be booing. This is what was going through my head at that moment. This was wrong, my game was not good, I made many mistakes. I said, ‘if in addition you get mad, you will show people that you have not progressed and you’re still the same.’ I tried to stay calm even if it was easy to go up gradually. At 4-1, he is an average game or it stress a little. There is room to come back. I am after some good plays. When in equality, I was perhaps better, more aggressive. I have a little less stressed maybe.
In this picture, all the complicity between Gael Monfils and Benoit Paire – Panoramic
Does the fact that Yannick Noah is now playing on your motivation?
PB: Not at all. I do my tennis, I play my season as I can, there is no Davis Cup tie tomorrow. I do not believe at all in the selection but the complicated season I had last year. I went through the Future earlier this year, I gained a Future, a challenger, an ATP 250, I made the final of a 500. I play for myself, not for the France team of Davis Cup. I think to win games, move up the rankings, try to be in the top 20. These are important goals for myself.
You see sure the public eye changed towards you? In any case it is felt in the aisles of Bercy …
PB: That makes me happy. I felt as I entered the field I was cheered. I especially felt a great support even when it was wrong. At 6-2, we felt that people had wanted to see the real Benedict this year they have seen on the ground, the guy who gets to win games, to cling. I think I did the necessary things for the public to love me a little more. 2 years ago, I made myself whistling, I deserved, I was on the short half injured. I would perhaps not had to go back on the field. This year they have seen that I have done a lot, where I went, they followed the true Benoît Paire. They saw that it was more serious and regular. It touches me that people see me in a different way.
You have often made a small complex against the best French and finally the top 4. Here there is something that is unlocked?
BP: I do not know if it was unlocked because it was finally handed, even in the third set. Up to 6-2 4-0, blocking, there was! I really want to do well here. It was hard for me to play the French in the first round but I’m pretty good out. We’ll have to get used to the Franco-French duel since there’s another Tuesday (Gilles Simon).
Benoit Paire winner of Gael Monfils in the first round of the Masters 1000 Paris 2015 – Panoramic
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