Benoit Paire smashes three rackets during hysterical rampage at the Citi Open
Benoit Paire caused quite a racket at the Citi Open, repeatedly spiking and throwing his expensive equipment until the crowd booed him off the court.
The French tennis player displayed not even a hint of joie de vivre in his 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 loss on Tuesday to Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, the 2010 runner-up at the hard-court tune-up for the US Open and the 2006 runner-up at the Australian Open.
After tumbling at the end of a point in the next-to-last game, Paire sat on the ground and slammed his racket four times, breaking it.
Then he rose to walk to the sideline for the changeover and tossed the worthless frame.
The racket is subjected to further punishment from Paire while a ballboy stands shocked
When he got to his bench, he knocked it over. Next, he threw another racket.
Baghdatis - famous for his own viral racket-smashing episode - went over to chat, perhaps to try to calm Paire down. Didn't work at all.
Paire wound up carrying two mangled rackets and tossing them onto the middle of the court, leaving a ballkid to collect them.
A ballboy is left to collect the battered equipment after Paire chucks them into the court
The ballboy carries two broken Babolat Aero rackets off the court so play can continue
Soon enough, without much resistance from Paire, Baghdatis completed his win.
Paire threw his racket one more time, for good measure, on the way to meeting Baghdatis at the net for a polite embrace.
