French tennis player spikes, throws, breaks rackets in loss

Benoit Paire of France smashes his tennis racket after loosing to Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus during the first round of the Citi Open tennis tournament, Tuesday, July 31, 2018, in Washington. Baghdatis 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

WASHINGTON — Benoit Paire caused quite a racket at the Citi Open, repeatedly spiking and throwing his equipment until the crowd booed him off the court.

The French tennis player displayed not even a hint of joie de vivre in the late going of his 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 loss on Tuesday to Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, the 2010 runner-up at the hard-court tuneup for the U.S. 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.

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.

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.