PETE ZIEBRON in PHOENIX
Benoit Paire, far right playing cards with Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon as Nicolas Mahut observes. Pete Ziebron Images
Benoit Paire, the #1 seed in the Arizona Tennis Classic $125K Challenger in Phoenix wasted absolutely no time putting on a show for spectators on Center Court on Wednesday night. On the third point of the match, the crafty Frenchman hit an approach drop shot that had so much spin, that it then bounced back over Paire's side of the net before Emilio Nava had any chance to make a play on the ball. That effort gave Paire a 40-0 lead, and he closed out the opening game a point later.
Later in the opening set, Paire hit an approach shot tweener - he lost that point but the crowd was thrilled. Deep in the opening set and serving at 5-5 deuce, Paire hit another tweener to win the point. Certainly a rather dangerous time to hit such a shot, however Paire was feeling loose all night. He won that game, broke Nava to win the first set 7-5 and then won the first four games of the second set.
During this game, while serving at 4-0, Paire was not thrilled with some of the officiating and set his racquet on the baseline and walked halfway up the doubles alley to point to a mark where he felt the ball landed out. Judging from Paire's hand gesture explanation and protest, the ball was at least three inches out. Paire would be broken at that game and he then rocketed a ball out of the stadium and on to the adjacent golf course at the Phoenix Country Club.
Benoit Paire would hit a third tweener of the night later in the set and would advance to the second round with a 7-5 6-2 victory.
Earlier in the day, Center Court featured FOUR former top ten ATP players: Gilles Simon, Richard Gasquet, David Goffin and Fernando Verdasco! Keep in mind, this is a $125K Challenger event. The Arizona Tennis Classic draw is certainly better than many ATP 250 events and nearly as good as some ATP 500 tournaments.
This is why I fondly refer to the Arizona Tennis Classic as the Phoenix 375.
In fact, the first match of the evening featured Emil Ruusuvouri of Finland against American Wild Card Brandon Nakashima. This was a rematch of last year's Atlanta 250 Semifinal, won by the American. This time, the Finn relied on a steady serve down the middle and consistently broke down the Nakashima backhand en route to a 6-3 6-3 win.
Regarding the former top ten players, all but Simon won their matches to advance to the second round on Thursday. Paire will play Radu Albot of Moldova, Gasquet will open Thursday's action against Facundo Bagnis of Argentina and Goffin will play American Wild Card Christopher Eubanks who defeated Simon in straight sets on Wednesday.
Indian Wells may have Nick Kyrgios, however the Arizona Tennis Classic features Benoit Paire and his active tweener game. What will Paire bring to the table today?
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