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For Benoît Paire, Just Playing in the U.S. Open Felt Like Winning

A year ago, French tennis player Benoît Paire spent the U.S. Open isolated in his Long Island hotel room after testing positive for Covid-19, unable to take his place in the draw and unable to find his happy place in the aftermath.

Paire, no pillar of consistency in normal times, struggled in new ways in extraordinary times, missing the fans and shot after shot, sometimes making very little effort as the opening-round losses piled up.

“I was there without really being there,” he said.

But the crowds are back, as the first day of the U.