A French tennis player spat, shouted at the umpire, then appeared to tank his final service game in a foul on-court tantrum

• French tennis star Benoit Paire had an almighty meltdown as he crashed out of the ATP Buenos Aires.
• Paire spat on the court, shouted at the umpire, and appeared to deliberately tank his final service game.
• After the defeat he tweeted a picture showing he has earned $8.5 million in his career.

French tennis star Benoit Paire spat on the court, shouted at the umpire, and then appeared to deliberately lose his final service game as he crashed out of the ATP Buenos Aires second round in dramatic fashion on Thursday.

World No. 29 Paire, seeded third in the tournament, was beaten 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 by Francisco Cerundolo.

The Frenchman lost his cool when 2-0 down in the second set after a Cerundolo hit an ace down the middle of the court. Paire contested that the serve had been out.

The 31-year-old proceeded to argue with the chair umpire over the call, before he spat on a mark in the clay where he believed the serve to have actually landed, earning him a warning for a code of conduct violation.

Later in the set, he was docked a point for a second code of conduct violation after again spitting and arguing with the umpire.

Then, serving at 1-5 down in the third set, Paire appeared to tank his final service game with back-to-back double faults.

On the second double fault, Paire even hit his second serve as a ball kid was still on court removing the ball from his first serve.

After the defeat, Paire posted a screenshot of his career winnings, a total of just over $8.5 million. However, the screenshot also showed his career record, which has seen him lose 243 matches and win just 225.

"In the end it's worth it to suck," he wrote.

Paire's meltdown in Argentina by no means the first of his career.

At the 2018 Citi Open he smashed three rackets on court after his defeat to Marcos Baghdatis, while in January last year he spat on the floor and smashed his rackets after losing the second set to Serbian Dusan Lajovic at the ATP Cup.

Paire was also kicked out of the 2016 Rio Olympics by the former technical director of French Tennis Federation Arnaud Di Pasquale after spending a large portion of time away from the rest of the French team.

Cerundolo faces Spaniard Pablo Andújar in the quarterfinals of the Argentina Open on Friday.