Love him or hate him, brash, big-bearded Benoit keeps Paris entertained

Brash and big-bearded, Benoit Paire has been booed off more courts than he'd care to remember but in Paris' gathering gloom on Wednesday evening, he was welcomed back into the arms of Roland Garros after winning a four and a half hour epic to knock out compatriot Pierre-Hugues Herbert.

His 6-2 6-2 5-7 6-7 (6/8) 11-9 on Court Suzanne Lenglen saw the mercurial 30-year-old reach the last 32 for the third time.

It also extended the thaw in his often icy relationship with notoriously fickle French crowds which started last weekend when he lifted the title in Lyon.

"Even though I'm playing against Pierre-Hugues, and even when they were supporting Pierre-Hugues, I felt it was perfectly normal.

"We're in France. We are both French, and they are supporting us, and no problem. But I felt the public is not going to make me win this match.

"There were so many people in my mind already that I didn't need anyone else."