Paire apologises to the FFT and will not be sanctioned

Benoit Paire wrote a letter of apology to the French Tennis Federation (FFT) for his antics (spitting, swearing, botched match, reaction on social networks) during the tournament in Buenos Aires, and the body decided Tuesday not to sanction him.

"In view of the letter of apology sent by Mr Benoît Paire to the Ethics Committee, the latter considers that the formal and public acknowledgement of his breaches of the Ethics Charter constitutes a sufficient measure, without it being necessary at this stage to refer the matter to the competent disciplinary bodies," said the FFT's Ethics Committee in a statement.

In this opinion, issued on 12 March and published on Tuesday, the Ethics Committee said it had "for the first time referred the matter to itself" after learning of the events in Argentina because Paire's behaviour was not "isolated".

The facts studied by the Ethics Committee date back to the second round match of the Buenos Aires tournament against Francisco Cerundolo (137th in the world) on 4 March. The French player (31 years old, 29th in the world) had spat on a disputed mark judged against him by the referee, had shouted several expletives and completely sabotaged his end of the match, including the match point lost on a gross double fault.

To top it all off, he added a provocation on social media where his detractors were having a field day: a photo from the ATP website showing his $8.5 million career earnings was accompanied by the comment "Finally it's worth it to suck" and two emoticons, a kiss and a middle finger.

The following week, he again fell miserably in his first match in Santiago, against the 410th player in the world, 17-year-old Holger Rune. This time it was his apathy that surprised. And this time he took to social media to try and explain himself, blaming the health conditions imposed on players: "For me, playing tennis has become a tasteless profession. So yes, I need time to adapt to this pseudo ATP circuit.

He is committed to Acapulco this week - he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas - and the Miami Masters 1000 from 24 March.