Benoit Paire and James Ward Have a … Moment.
It’s that time of year again, when we dig through our Cincinnati Masters archives and bring you tons of tennis pics and stories — all in anticipation of bringing you even more new material when the tourney rolls around in August.
The fun of wading through thousands of frames is when an unexpected bit of humor or a little hint of a character study appears before our very eyes. French player Benoit Paire is often a source of these revelations, especially when he’s in one of his warm and funny moods, as you’ll see he was here.
This is Benoit, taking a short break during his practice session with British player James Ward.
This is James.
Their practice session was at a fairly moderate pace, just getting a rhythm going, warming up the muscles while going through the serve, groundstrokes, overheads, etc.
Because it was Benoit, it also included some showing off…
…and checking the cell phone…
There was also a bit of chatting at net.
And if you look really closely… (which you can on all these photos, feel free to click or zoom!) … because it’s Benoit, there’s a graceful sort of intimacy about this whole collecting of the tennis balls moment.
And James is quite close in the above photo, which we’ll zoom in on for you…
Ben takes a step back, perhaps a little uncertain about what the hell just happened there.
But very quickly, Val’s little French pastry is back to a casual pose as they continue their discussion.
Then there’s the handshake, which Ben seems to be teasingly turning into a bit of an arm wrestle…
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Then things get closer yet again.
Not quite ready to go back to the tennis, Benoit shares a few more of his thoughts with James…
…who seems highly amused.
The amusement continues when Ben somehow drops his racquet and folds himself in half to retrieve it…
After some slightly more intensive rallies on the court, the guys once again meet up, this time for the farewell handshake.
James looks a little uncertain about what the next move will be, but Benoit leans in this time…
…for a rather smooshy hug.
James looks more amused (pleased?) as the hug goes on, while Benoit seems to be bubbling over with laughter…
And then…sadly… the boys went their separate ways.
Practice sessions can have all kinds of dynamics, with players adopting very business-like attitudes, or total goofing off with friends, or a volatile/therapeutic session for a player who’s not at his or her best. In this case, Ben and James seemed to bond very well, and clearly they enjoyed each other’s company. And we might not be wrong in saying that James is a little bit smitten with Benoit… like pretty much everyone else that sees him in person.
Woman came around corner, looked at Ben and said “Oh yeah, here he is. He’s *handsome*.” All agreed. 😉 #Paire #Cincy pic.twitter.com/YZ4jFBggPM
— Tennis Inside Out (@TennisInsideOut) August 21, 2015
