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French tennis star Benoit Paire was "very disappointed" with his performance in the Sofia round-of-16 against James Duckworth. Paire, ranked at No. 49 in the world, was handed a 6-4 6-4 defeat by last week's Astana Open runner-up Duckworth.
Paire, 32, was having his debut appearance in Sofia and he was hoping to clinch his first title since 2019 this week. "I will be honest with you! I'm very disappointed with my game today, my negative attitude the whole game!
I'm putting a lot of unnecessary pressure on myself right now! Now let's go to Indian Wells to try to correct this," Paire said in an Instagram post.
Paire made a good start to the match but then shut down
Paire made an outstanding start to the match, having broken Duckworth in the first and fifth game to open a 4-1 lead.
After opening a double-break lead, Paire's game suddenly shut down as Duckworth claimed three consecutive breaks to overturn the deficit and steal the opener. After winning the first set, Duckworth was constantly pressuring Paire's serve.
Paire saved break points in the fourth, sixth and eighth game as the two players were all tied at 4-4 after the opening eight games of the set. Unfortunately for Paire, he couldn't save break points in the 10th game as Duckworth broke to seal victory.
This week, Paire reflected on visiting Babolat. Paire revealed he promised Babolat he would stop breaking rackets. "After the rain comes the good weather! I would like to show my gratitude to Babolat who faithfully supports me and to all the people who work on a daily basis so that I can play in the best conditions.
Great experience for me to have spent time in the Babolat premises, and to have contributed to all the stages of preparing my equipment," Paire wrote in an Instagram post. "PS I told them I was going to stop breaking rackets."