Will Andy Murray call time on his tennis career?
It can’t get any worse than this for Andy Murray.
As world No 112 Benoit Paire held his arms aloft in victory after his first round win against three-time Grand Slam champion Murray, the Scot had the confirmation he needed that the game is up for him at the highest level of the game.
Talented Frenchman Paire is the kind of player who could and should have achieved so much more in his career, yet the fact that he had not won at ATP Tour level match since August 2022 should have given Murray all the incentive he needed to finally get his first win on the board in 2024.
Yet what happening in the opening round of the Open Sud de Franc in Montpellier would have been tough for Murray to comprehend.
Paire has essentially become an exhibition performer at the back end of his career, with his brand of entertaining and erratic tennis in demand for event organisers looking for a showman to entertain the crowds.
He has become a star performer in Patrick Mouratoglou’s Ultimate Tennis Showdown and while that event adds so much to the entertainment factor in tennis, Paire’s presence is as much for the fun he provides as the quality of his tennis.
At the age of 34, Paire is essentially playing out the final days of his career and picking up appearance fees to boost his pension fund, but he was still good enough to beat Murray.
After losing in the first round of the Brisbane International and the Australian Open earlier this month, Murray let slip a one-set lead against Paire to lose 6-2 6-7 (5) 3-6 in just short of two and three-quarter hours.
Former world No 1 Murray raced into a 3-0 lead in the opening set after breaking Paire’s first service game and broke the Frenchman for a second time in the eighth game to wrap it up 6-2 in 38 minutes.
Paire, who reached a career-high ranking of 18 in 2016, responded by breaking Murray in the opening game of the second set and after the Briton broke back to level it up at 4-4, it headed for a tie-break.
Murray won three successive points from 5-1 down and saved a set point to claw it back to 6-5, but lost the next point on his serve and Paire clinched the tie-break 7-5 to level the match.
After both players had lost their serve early in the decider, Paire made the decisive break when 4-3 ahead and served it out to seal an impressive win.
A first tour-level win since 2022 ✅@benoitpaire comes back to beat Murray 2-6 7-6 6-3 in Montpellier 🤯#OSDF24 pic.twitter.com/7hGJsuAXmH
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) January 29, 2024
Murray, who has said this year could be his last on tour if he is “not enjoying it”, lost in the opening round to Grigor Dimitrov in Brisbane and fell to Tomas Martin Etcheverry in straight sets at the Australian Open.
At the end of this match, Murray’s frustration at the prospect of losing to a player he beat in their previous three meetings boiled over,
He was screaming at the chair umpire, admonishing line umpires and remonstrating with the crowd in the closing stages of this match and left the court with his frustration boiling over as the French crowd toasted the success of Paire on home soil.
How much more of this can Murray take?
It is hard to believe he will continue his miserable end-of-career story beyond Wimbledon this summer, yet getting to that emotional farewell on the Centre Court where he enjoyed his finest triumphs feels like a long way off right now.
This great champion has a record of one win from his last ten matches and that would be enough to bring down the curtain for any player who is struggling to accept the time is up.