Juan Martin Del Potro powers past petulant Benoit Paire

With his enormous arms, ponderous stride and furry facial hair, Juan Martin Del Potro has long been seen as the tour’s teddy bear-in-chief.

It helps that he is one of the sport’s most popular players, a warm character who has always charmed despite the injury anguish that has hindered so much of his career.

Against Benoit Paire in the third round here, though, the teddy was forced to turn grizzly in order to swat aside one of the game’s great irritants.

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Erratic and exuberant, Paire is fun to watch but pest-like in his petulance. At times it felt like there was a whinge with every swing, at others it seemed as if the Frenchman had simply grown bored with it all.

Credit to Del Potro, then, for securing what eventually became a straightforward 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 victory on No 2 Court.

The Argentine had to put up with Paire’s antics, the debilitating SW19 heat and even the collapse of one member of the audience, who was taken ill just as he had forced a crucial break point in the final set.

All in all, this was a mental victory for Del Potro, the fifth seed, as much as it was physical. It was also another loping stride towards the business end of the tournament.

Three matches played, nine sets won, none lost. Momentum is building for the 2013 semi-finalist, who has finally begun to rediscover his best form this year after so many struggles with his wrist.

The 29-year-old has had no fewer than three operations in recent years, and at one point he was virtually unable to hit a backhand.

He has gradually been able to incorporate a more devilish slice into his game, which relieves the pressure on the wrist, and he is now capable again of producing more powerful efforts when required.

“I know my game,” Del Potro said. “It is adapting well to this surface. I don’t know how far I will go in this tournament, but I am confident with my game at this time. I am hitting more often with the two-handed backhand, which is good for me.

"On this surface, I can mix it up with slices and hit hard when I have the chance to make a winner with a two-handed backhand. I am not having any pain. I think I improve all my game when I have my backhand working.”

It has been an encouraging few months for Del Potro. Earlier this year he returned to the top 10 of the men’s rankings for the first time since 2014.

In March, he ended Roger Federer’s 17-match unbeaten run with a thrilling victory in the final of the BNP Paribas Open title at Indian Wells.

Paire, who has a grooming sponsor for his hipster beard, made for a fittingly unconventional opponent. Enigmatic on and off the court, he has a long history of outbursts and controversies.

At the Rio Olympics in 2016, he was sent home by the head of French tennis for repeated rule-breaking, and in May he responded to an unfavourable umpire’s decision by spitting on the court.

“I know him very well,” said a smiling Del Potro, who faces unseeded Frenchman Gilles Simon next. “Always is a pleasure to play against him. You never know what could happen during the game.”

In the baking heat on No 2 Court, Paire was consistent with his petulant attitude but inconsistent with his racket, which he continually struggled to re-grip. His first furious roar came early in the opening set, and his anger soon turned from himself to the umpire, Carlos Bernardes.

At one point he even seemed to have asked for Bernardes to be moved. “Zero,” he said towards the official after one incorrect call had not been overruled. “Zero.”

Asked later what he meant, Paire said: “Zero is because when you stay on the chair and you don’t make an overrule and you just announce the score, I think I can do the job. So we don’t need a chair umpire if it’s just to stay and say the score. For me, he has to do his job. He has to take some risk. I say you are a zero because you have to do something.”

It was then put to Paire that it seemed he had rated Bernardes with a “zero” out of 10. “No,” Paire said. “Maybe one or two just for the announcement of the score. ‘New balls’, ‘15-love’, it was a good job for him today. But after, no.”

Still, there were moments of genius interspersed between the strops. Paire’s fierce backhand was a problem, while he struck one sensational winner from a squatting position at the base of the court.

Del Potro, though, was always the more steady swinger. With his booming serve and dynamite forehand, which he winds up like a boxer going for a knockout punch, he was far more destructive when it mattered most.

The match statistics told their own story of Paire’s irregular afternoon: he struck more aces than Del Potro, and hit more winners. Yet he also made 24 unforced errors to Del Potro’s 16 and won less than half the points on his second serve.

Paire was broken twice in the first set, but did become the first player to win a game on Del Potro’s serve at this year’s tournament. The Frenchman was left screaming in frustration in the second-set tie-break, and seemed to carry the anger into the third set, when he was immediately broken.

He was now verging on self-destruction but somehow flicked the switch to break back, before the collapse of the spectator came at the worst possible time. Del Potro broke within a few shots of the restart, and never looked back.