Benoit Paire left the court to a chorus of boos after producing a quite remarkable meltdown during his first round defeat to Marcos Baghdatis at the Citi Open in Washington.
The Frenchman quite simply lost his mind when he netted an attempted smash to fall 5-2 behind in the match. The 29-year-old is no stranger to losing his temper and he proceeded to sit on the ground whilst repeatedly smashing his tennis racquet on the floor before launching it towards the net as he walked off to change ends.
A ball boy attempted to appease the angered player by offering a towel but Paire had well and truly seen red by this point and walked towards his bench, exchanging a friendly slap of hands with Baghdatis before unleashing his fury on another racquet from his bag. He gave it a good kicking before launching it across the floor. The full video can be found further down this page and is well worth a watch, although the French player wasn't even finished there...
In the next game, Paire made no effort to return a Baghdatis serve on match point and he promptly smashed another racquet before shaking hands with his opponent, who claimed a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 win to advance to the second round in Washington.
The crowd were left unimpressed by the efforts of the world number 55 as they were asked to applaud the two players before serenading Paire with a chorus of boos.
Baghdatis can look forward to a second round match against number eight seed Chung Hyeon in Washington, although Paire can expect a hefty fine for his actions. Watch his epic meltdown in full below...
Full video here
