In January this year Benoit Paire was riding high as the seventeenth seed in the Australian Open. This week he features as the top seed in the Mouilleron Le Captif Challenger.
Paire’s season is very much a reflection of the player himself, up-and-down with the capacity to give a world no.1 a battle, or to lose to a wildcard like he did in the Australian Open courtesy of Noah Rubin. The fact that Paire now features as the top seed in a Challenger is not indicative of an especially poor year. He is ranked inside the Top 50 and the tournament is worth one hundred and ten ATP points to the winner, not a number to be sniffed at by any player.
The view is shared by no less than four other Top 100 players including Mikhail Youzhny, Paul-Henri Mathieu, Konstantin Kravchuk, and Radu Albot. Given that there are no more ATP events aside from the ATP World Tour Finals these events are a valuable source of points and capital for players as the next ATP events do not run until the 2017 season kicks off in the Australasian swing in January.
The draw itself sees Paire start against Jonathan Eyssseric with Tobias Kamke for company as the eighth seed in his quarter. Paire should win though the unpredictable nature of the Frenchman means that an expected result is never as comfortable as with some others.
Paul-Henri Mathieu has Nikoloz Basilashvili in his section though the Georgian must likely play Andrey Rublev before a potential encounter with the third seed. Tristan Lamasine will likely offer little resistance for Mathieu.
Konstantin Kravchuk starts against young Frenchman Quentin Halys,who like Rublev is a young talent who’s potential is not doubted but has suffered a similarly disappointing year to the Russian.
Mikhail Youzhny as the second seed might have expected an easier run until his quarter-final or even semi-final. He didn’t allow for being drawn against perhaps the most dangerous non-seeded opponent in the draw in fellow veteran Julien Benneteau. This is undoubtedly the match of the first round and Youzhny though the favourite in ranking, will have to be in good form to deny the home favourite. Seventh seed Marco Chiudinelli will likely meet one of Benneteau or Youzhny in the quarter-finals as he has a rather favourable draw, starting against a qualifier before facing either Pere Riba or Alexey Vatutin.
