Benoit Paire, Gilles Simon found themselves in bizarre airport incident
French tennis stars Benoit Paire, Gilles Simon and Pauline Parmentier found themselves in a bizarre airport incident at the start of the new season.
A security alert was activated at CDG airport because two men were carrying fake guns.
The French players were told there was an attack and started running.
World No. 52 Paire and 30th-ranked Simon eventually got on the plane and arrived in Pune.
Meanwhile, world No. 56 Parmentier arrived in Shenzhen to open her 2019 campaign.
Fortunately, the players escaped unharmed but Paire and Simon arrived in Pune without their luggage since their flight was delayed.
Paire and Simon borrowed rackets from other players so they could practice until their luggage arrived.
Benoit Paire and Gilles Simon had quite an eventful start to the season. Per @lequipe: They were departing for Pune the same day and hour there was a security alert and evacuation at CDG airport because of two men with fake guns.
— Oleg S. (@AnnaK_4ever) January 1, 2019
Benoit: We were told there was an attack, everybody started yelling ‘Flee!’. We (himself, Simon, Pauline Parmentier and her coach Olivier Patience) ran like crazy. Gilles hid behind the counter, I ran away, Patience tried to shield himself with his bags.
— Oleg S. (@AnnaK_4ever) January 1, 2019
As result, their flight was delayed and they arrived in Pune without luggage so for first few days they had to practice with other people's racquets.
— Oleg S. (@AnnaK_4ever) January 1, 2019
Paire, 29, defeated Brazil's Thiago Monteiro 7-6 (5) 6-3 in the Pune first round on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old is set to clash next against Czech Jiri Vesely.
In his Pune debut appearance last year, Paire made the semi-final before he lost to world No. 6 Kevin Anderson.
On the other side, third-seeded Simon had a first-round bye as he is set to open his Pune campaign against Ilya Ivashka.
Simon will be targeting to repeat last year's success and win back-to-back Pune titles.
The 34-year-old Frenchman beat South-African star Anderson in the 2018 Pune final.
Elsewhere, Parmentier lost to Sorana Cirstea in the Shenzhen round-of-16.
Also read: Ernests Gulbis hopes to stay healthy, targets big wins and top-50 return
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2F3udKW
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