Former world No. 18 tennis star Benoit Paire has joked he will join OnlyFans after learning that social media influencer Sophie Rain made nearly £34million in one year on the platform. Paire achieved his highest world ranking at the start of 2016 but has since fallen down the standings and mainly competes on the Challenger Tour these days.

Paire has struggled on the court this year and failed to make it into the main draw at any of the Grand Slams as he was beaten in the first qualifying match at every Major tournant.

The 35-year-old did, however, get the better of Andy Murray at the Open Sud de France in Montpellier at the end of January.

During a recent podcast, Rain explained that she had been earning over £3m per month on Only Fans. She then took to X (formerly Twitter) last week to post a picture of her earnings from the last year as she wrote: “Thankful for one year on here.”

At the weekend she posted more evidence of her income as she penned: “Heard more proof was needed! Here’s a few single months from this year.”

The post has gone viral, with some people utterly shocked at the sums of money that can be earned on the platform.

And Paire, who has reached the fourth round of Wimbledon on two occasions, made his views on the matter clear as he posted an image of himself dressed in only a vest to Instagram. He accompanied the picture with a caption in French, which translated to: “43 Million!!! I think I'ma get on OnlyFans too.”

Back in 2022, Paire vowed to quit partying and alcohol in an attempt to get his career back on track.

“It's been a long time since I felt the competitive fire that I felt today, that I didn't really want to win a match,” he explained during an appearance at the Brest Challenger.

“I've thrown it overboard - two years of my sports career - and I assume that to recover them, I need to change many things and add many wins like this one.”

And he added: “I'm going to take it game by game. I used to come to tournaments to win money and see what would happen, but now I see each event as a little step up.

“I've trained hard on a physical level, I've done very demanding tests and my legs are back, function at full capacity. I feel that now is the time.

“I know that I have been trying before, but not with this conviction because I did not have the mind in the necessary disposition to compete. Tennis had become an obligation, almost a punishment.”