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by | Dec 20, 2017 | Sparrows

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Elliot Benchetrit (born 2 October 1998) is a Moroccan tennis player who formerly represented France. Since 1 January 2021 Benchetrit started to represent Morocco.[1] His highest singles ranking was No. 198 on 10 February 2020, and his highest doubles ranking was No. 198 on 10 June 2019. He has won three singles titles on the ITF Men's Circuit, and two doubles titles, as well as another doubles title on the ATP Challenger Tour.

Tennis career

He won his first ITF singles tournament in 2017 in Tunisia, and his first ITF doubles tournament the same year in Morocco, with Maxime Hamou.[2]

Benchetrit made his Grand Slam main-draw debut at the 2018 French Open, after receiving a wildcard to the singles main draw.[3] He was defeated by fellow Frenchman Gaël Monfils in four sets in the first round. The following year at the 2019 French Open he also received wildcards in both singles and doubles and won his first round matches in both events.

Banana incident at the 2020 Australian Open

On 19 January 2020, while competing in the qualifiers for the 2020 Australian Open, 21-year-old Benchetrit asked a teenage ball girl to get him a banana. Upon being handed the banana, Benchetrit told the ball girl “I can't do it,” indicating that he himself was unable to peel the banana due to his fingers being "heavily taped" due to blisters (or "heavily bandaged" as some outlets reported), and him having put cream on his hands in order not to sweat, and requested that she peel it for him.[4][5][6] The chair umpire intervened, ordering Benchetrit to peel the banana himself, and, according to Benchetrit, telling him that the ball girl "was not his slave."[7][6] Benchetrit went on to defeat his opponent and qualify for the main tournament, where he lost in the first round.[8] The incident triggered debate on social media and within the ranks of tennis about the role of ball girls and ball boys.[9] Benchetrit later expressed his disbelief at the umpire's statement to him, and the social media response "without people knowing what really happened".[6]

Personal life

He was born in Nice, France, and lives in Morocco.[10]

Benchetrit is of Moroccan descent through his father.[11]

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 10 (6–4)

Legend
ATP Challenger (0–0)
ITF Futures (6–4)
Titles by surface
Hard (4–0)
Clay (2–4)
Grass (0–0)
Carpet (0–0)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Loss 0–1 Jun 2017 Tunisia F21, Hammamet Futures Clay Colombia Cristian Rodríguez 5–7, 4–6
Loss 0–2 Jul 2017 Morocco F2, Mohammedia Futures Clay Spain Carlos Boluda-Purkiss 0–6, 4–6
Win 1–2 Sep 2017 Tunisia F25, Hammamet Futures Clay Germany Rudolf Molleker 6–4, 2–0 Ret.
Win 2–2 Sep 2017 Tunisia F26, Hammamet Futures Clay Italy Luca Giacomini 6–4, 6–2
Win 3–2 Feb 2018 Tunisia F6, Djerba Futures Hard France Matteo Martineau 6–3, 6–2
Win 4–2 Sep 2022 M25, Sintra ITF World Tennis Tour Hard Netherlands Jesper de Jong 6–4, 6–1
Win 5–2 Jan 2023 M25, Doha ITF World Tennis Tour Hard Bogdan Bobrov 6–4, 6–3
Loss 5–3 May 2023 M15, Kuršumlijska Banja ITF World Tennis Tour Clay Germany Marko Topo 3–6, 4–6
Win 6–3 Oct 2023 M15, Monastir ITF World Tennis Tour Hard Poland Olaf Pieczkowski 6–2, 6–3
Loss 6–4 May 2024 M15, Bucharest ITF World Tennis Tour Clay Bulgaria Petr Nesterov 1–6, 2–6

Doubles: 5 (3–2)

Legend
ATP Challenger (1–1)
ITF Futures (2–1)
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Partner Opponents Score
Winner 1. 5 August 2017 Casablanca, Morocco F3 Clay France Maxime Hamou United States Nick Chappell
Tunisia Skander Mansouri 		7–6(7–4), 6–7(2–7), [10–5]
Winner 2. 10 September 2017 Hammamet, Tunisia F25 Clay Germany Rudolf Molleker Tunisia Aziz Dougaz
Tunisia Anis Ghorbel 		7–5, 6–3
Runner-up 1. 17 September 2017 Hammamet, Tunisia F26 Clay Germany Louis Wessels Italy Filippo Baldi
Italy Mirko Cutuli 		4–6, 4–6
Winner 3. 17 June 2018 Lyon, France Clay France Geoffrey Blancaneaux Chinese Taipei Hsieh Cheng-peng
Switzerland Luca Margaroli 		6–3, 4–6, [10–7]
Runner-up 2. 22 August 2020 Todi, Italy Clay France Hugo Gaston Uruguay Ariel Behar
Kazakhstan Andrey Golubev 		4–6, 2–6

References

  1. ^ Dardar, Jihad (2020-12-26). "Tennis Player Elliot Benchetrit Decides to Represent Morocco". www.moroccoworldnews.com. Retrieved 2021-01-12.
  2. ^ ""Morocco F3 Futures ITF Men's Circuit Week of 31 JUL 2017 Casablanca"" (PDF).
  3. ^ "wild-cards announced! – Roland-Garros – The 2018 French Open official site". www.rolandgarros.com.
  4. ^ McKenzie, Mikael (2020-01-20). "Australian Open ace slammed for making 'creepy' request to ball-kid". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  5. ^ "'Nasty piece of work': Australian Open player told off over weird ball girl request". au.sports.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  6. ^ a b c Marioni, Massimo (21 January 2020). "Australian Open: Ball girl peeling banana blown out of proportion, says Elliot Benchetrit". CNN. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  7. ^ "Tennis star Elliot Benchetrit branded 'nasty piece of work' for asking ball-girl to peel his banana". Msn.com. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  8. ^ "Australian Open: Tennis player asks ball-girl to peel banana for him, gets scolded by umpire – WATCH". Hindustan Times. January 21, 2020.
  9. ^ "Tennis player told off for asking ball girl to peel his banana". CNN. 20 January 2020. Retrieved 2020-01-20.
  10. ^ "Elliot Benchetrit | Overview". ATP Tour. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  11. ^ Baudu, Jeremy (2020-04-10). "Elliot Benchetrit en 10 questions – Roland-Garros, Roddick, Maroc". Tennis Majors (in French). Retrieved 2020-04-10.
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