Elliot Benchetrit (born 2 October 1998) is a Moroccan tennis player who formerly represented France. His highest singles ranking was No. 198 on 10 February 2020, and his highest doubles ranking was No. 198 on 10 June 2019. Since 1 January 2021 Benchetrit started to represent Morocco.[1] 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.

Elliot Benchetrit

Benchetrit at the 2019 French Open
Country (sports)	Morocco (2021–current)  France (–2020)
Residence	Morocco
Born	(1998-10-02) 2 October 1998 (age 23) Nice, France
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Turned pro	2016
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$519,952
Singles
Career record	2–8 (20.0%) (at ATP Tour level, Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 198 (10 February 2020)
Current ranking	No. 436 (4 April 2022)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	1R (2020)
French Open	2R (2019)
US Open	1R (2019)
Doubles
Career record	1–4 (20.0%) (at ATP Tour level, Grand Slam level, and in Davis Cup)
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 198 (10 June 2019)
Current ranking	No. 680 (4 April 2022)
Grand Slam doubles results
French Open	2R (2019)
Medal record Mediterranean Games 2022 Oran Men's Doubles
Last updated on: 4 April 2022.

He was born in Nice, France, and lives in Morocco.[2]

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.[3]

Benchetrit made his Grand Slam main-draw debut at the 2018 French Open, after receiving a wildcard to the singles main draw.[4] He was defeated by fellow Frenchman Gaël Monfils in four sets in the first round. The following year at the 2019 French Open he won his first round matches in both singles and doubles.

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.[5][6][7] 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."[8][7] Benchetrit went on to defeat his opponent and qualify for the main tournament, where he lost in the first round.[9] The incident triggered debate on social media and within the ranks of tennis about the role of ball girls and ball boys.[10] Benchetrit later expressed his disbelief at the umpire's statement to him, and the social media response "without people knowing what really happened".[7]

Personal life

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

ITF Circuit finals

Singles: 6 (4–2)

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0-1	Jun 2017	Tunisia F21, Hammamet	Futures	Clay	Cristian Rodríguez	5–7, 4–6
Loss	0-2	Jul 2017	Morocco F2, Mohammedia	Futures	Clay	Carlos Boluda-Purkiss	0–6, 4–6
Win	1-2	Sep 2017	Tunisia F25, Hammamet	Futures	Clay	Rudolf Molleker	6–4, 2–0 Ret.
Win	2-2	Sep 2017	Tunisia F26, Hammamet	Futures	Clay	Luca Giacomini	6–4, 6–2
Win	3-2	Feb 2018	Tunisia F6, Djerba	Futures	Hard	Matteo Martineau	6–3, 6–2
Win	4-2	Sep 2022	M25, Sintra	ITF World Tennis Tour	Hard	Jesper de Jong	6–4, 6–1

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 Maxime Hamou Nick Chappell Skander Mansouri 7–6(7–4), 6–7(2–7), [10–5] Winner 2. 10 September 2017 Hammamet, Tunisia F25 Clay Rudolf Molleker Aziz Dougaz Anis Ghorbel 7–5, 6–3 Runner-up 1. 17 September 2017 Hammamet, Tunisia F26 Clay Louis Wessels Filippo Baldi Mirko Cutuli 4–6, 4–6 Winner 3. 17 June 2018 Lyon, France Clay Geoffrey Blancaneaux Hsieh Cheng-peng Luca Margaroli 6–3, 4–6, [10–7] Runner-up 2. 22 August 2020 Todi, Italy Clay Hugo Gaston Ariel Behar Andrey Golubev 4-6, 2-6 References Dardar, Jihad (2020-12-26). "Tennis Player Elliot Benchetrit Decides to Represent Morocco". www.moroccoworldnews.com. Retrieved 2021-01-12. "Elliot Benchetrit | Overview". ATP Tour. Retrieved 2020-01-21. ""Morocco F3 Futures ITF Men's Circuit Week of 31 JUL 2017 Casablanca"" (PDF). "wild-cards announced! – Roland-Garros – The 2018 French Open official site". www.rolandgarros.com. McKenzie, Mikael (2020-01-20). "Australian Open ace slammed for making 'creepy' request to ball-kid". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-01-21. "'Nasty piece of work': Australian Open player told off over weird ball girl request". au.sports.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2020-01-21. Marioni, Massimo. "Australian Open: Ball girl peeling banana blown out of proportion, says Elliot Benchetrit". CNN. Retrieved 2020-01-21. "Tennis star Elliot Benchetrit branded 'nasty piece of work' for asking ball-girl to peel his banana". Msn.com. Retrieved 2020-01-21. "Australian Open: Tennis player asks ball-girl to peel banana for him, gets scolded by umpire - WATCH". Hindustan Times. January 21, 2020. "Tennis player told off for asking ball girl to peel his banana". CNN. Retrieved 2020-01-20. Baudu, Jeremy (2020-04-10). "Elliot Benchetrit en 10 questions – Roland-Garros, Roddick, Maroc". Tennis Majors (in French). Retrieved 2020-04-10. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Elliot Benchetrit. Elliot Benchetrit at the Association of Tennis Professionals Elliot Benchetrit at the International Tennis Federation This biographical article relating to Moroccan tennis is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

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