Paire: 'Me and Gael Monfils love each other. He should offer me drinks!'

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Gael Monfils defeated Benoit Paire in Paris on Wednesday. Paire spoke on a funny note about his compatriot. "He's a buddy on the court", admitted Benoit. "He's having a wonderful season. He's nearly guaranteed to be one of the top 10 players.

We were looking at Goffin to see, and when we saw 5-Love for Dimitrov, we could see that he was happy. I can see that he's very serious, and very much involved in what he is doing. He really wants to achieve great successes. Of course, he's got ups and downs, which is normal for a player as he is.

He's a bit atypical. We love to play, but it's not always easy to be on court. So this is why I'm very happy that he's on a roll, that he's going to be part of the top 10. Now I'm not part of the top 20 because of him. I hope that he will achieve something good for the next Masters.

Now that he's won against me, I hope that he's going to win a lot of matches. I would say that in four years there were ups and downs, but when he was on the roll, it was very high up. Of course, he had also injuries that he sustained, but he's a great player to watch.

I get along with him very well, and I have a lot of pleasure playing with him." On why they hugged in the end, Paire concluded: "I do it with Gaël because we love each other. If it were another player, I would look at him with a smile on my face. He should offer me some drinks as I lost", he said smiling.