Garcia, Mannarino lead France into Sydney QFs

Caroline Garcia steered France into the Sydney quarter-finals of the United Cup on Wednesday with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win over Italy's Jasmine Paolini.

Garcia's singles win followed a 6-4, 6-4 win for Adrian Mannarino over Lorenzo Sonego in men's singles, giving France an unassailable 2-0 lead in the tie and clinching its spot atop Group D. France's quarter-final opponent is to be determined based on results Wednesday evening. 

World No.20 Garcia won the first eight sets - and four matches - of her head-to-head against Paolini, the World No. 29, but their last two meetings have gone the distance. In 2 hours and 17 minutes, Garcia flipped the script of the result of their last meeting: a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 win for the Italian on the hard courts of Zhengzhou, China in October.

Garcia served 11 aces in victory and broke serve five times. After getting even from 4-1 behind in the second set, she regrouped well to start the decider after the match was briefly paused at that juncture when a spectator required medical attention. She won four of the first five games of the third, and emphatically slammed the door on the match by holding to love - after Paolini kept the pressure on her by not only closing the deficit from 4-1 to 4-3, but holding serving in the ninth game.

Earlier in the day, the no-frills, flat-hitting left-hander Mannarino claimed a 6-4, 6-4 win over Sonego, who came into the match having won eight of his past nine matches against Frenchmen.

“It’s always a tough match with him and in the second set I felt it could go either way,” Mannarino said. “I was lucky at 4-all to go the break up and everything went my way today.”

At 35, Mannarino enters 2024 after playing some of his best tennis last season, when he claimed three titles and 43 match wins, both personal bests. At a career-high No. 22 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Mannarino is closing in on the Top 20 and also the 300-wins milestone (currently 289). Last year he reached the Australian Open fourth round.

Mannarino, who did not face a break point, was solid throughout, especially on second serve, winning 13 of 18 points (72 per cent) on second serves, according to Infosys ATP Stats.

His biggest concern came in the second game of the second set after he fell behind 0/30. In a burst of frustration Mannarino pounded his forehead with the butt of his racquet, which opened up a small wound that resulted in a play stoppage and treatment by an ATP physio.

Mannarino also levelled their Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 2-2, with both his wins coming on hard courts.

"It's just beautiful." 🤌

🇫🇷 @AdrianMannarino with all the move this morning 🕺#UnitedCup pic.twitter.com/7vqzo9bHej

— United Cup (@UnitedCupTennis) January 3, 2024

Elixane Lechemia and Edouard Roger-Vasselin completed the 3-0 victory for France with a 7-6(5), 6-4 win over Nuria Brancaccio and Flavio Cobolli. France won five of its six matches in group play, tied with Poland for the best mark in the 2024 United Cup.