Home-town hero Cazaux sinks doubles partner Wawrinka in Montpellier

Arthur Cazaux notched a bittersweet victory Monday evening to kickstart his campaign at the Open Occitanie in Montpellier.

The 22-year-old produced a commanding performance to advance past former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-3 at the hard-court ATP 250 event. Cazuax, a Montpellier native, will team with Wawrinka on the doubles court tomorrow, but that did not stop him from putting on a show to outfox the 39-year-old in 88 minutes.

“It was such an honour for me to share the court with him today,” Cazaux said of three-time major winner Wawrinka. “Of course I watched him on TV when I was very young, when he won three Grand Slams. It was an honour, but it wasn’t easy for me because we talked together before the tournament about playing doubles and we also practised together two days ago.

“I am happy with my win today. I had to stay focused because he played better in the second set. He served better so it wasn’t easy for me to pressure on his service games. I’m pretty happy with the win because I played a pretty good level during the whole match.”

next-level shot placement 🎯🔥@ArthurCazaux | @OpenOccitanie | #openoccitanie pic.twitter.com/b1hv9jvCO3

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The key to Cazaux’s victory was his rock-solid display on serve, where he won 85 per cent (29/34) of points behind his first delivery, according to Infosys ATP Stats. This allowed for the Frenchman to make significant inroads on return as he continuously found the feet of Wawrinka to cause pressure.

There were glimpses of the tennis that propelled Wawrinka to three major titles, but the Swiss player was unable to convert any of the two break points he created. They both came when Cazaux was serving out the first set, but the 22-year-old remained resolute in front of his home crowd.

Cazaux will have an opportunity for revenge when he takes on second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime in the second round. The Frenchman, who trails 0-2 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, fell at the same stage to Auger-Aliassime in last year’s edition of the tournament.

“It [will be] revenge of the revenge because I also played him three weeks ago,” Cazaux said with a smile. “I know Felix very well, it’s going to be a big fight like always. So I am pretty happy to be in the second round and play against him with my crowd.”

Earlier, Buyunchaokete showed few signs of nerves in his maiden ATP Tour campaign as a seeded player. The No. 71 in the PIF ATP Rankings, who is seeded eighth in Montpellier, delivered a commanding 7-6(1), 6-3 performance over Daniel Altmaier in one hour, 43 minutes.

Buyunchaokete crucially saved two break points in the seventh game before asserting his dominance in a one-sided tie-break. The Chinese star carried the momentum into the second set, where he broke twice before sealing his first tour-level win of the season. Buyunchaokete will face either Borna Coric or Constant Lestienne in the second round.

Dominik Koepfer rounded at the evening's action with a 6-4, 7-6(5) triumph over wild card Gregoire Barrere. The German trailed 1-4 in the second set but recovered to edge the home hope in a tie-break and set up a second-round meeting with fourth seed Alexander Bublik.