Adrian Mannarino overcame 12 aces to defeat fellow Frenchman Arthur Gea in the quarterfinals of the Open Occitanie on Friday in Montpellier, France.
The wild card Gea won the first set thanks to a lost serve from Mannarino, but Mannarino was able to win the match in just more than 2 1/2 hours, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Mannarino was one of two Frenchmen to come away victorious on Friday, as qualifier Titouan Droguet’s 21 aces lifted him to a convincing victory over fourth-seeded Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (1).
Top-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada smashed 12 aces to come away with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over his French opponent Arthur Fils.
American qualifier Martin Damm defeated Italy’s Luca Nardi in a 6-3, 7-6 (8) battle, and will face Mannarino in the semifinals on Saturday. Auger-Aliassime will face Droguet immediately after.
Davis Cup
A doubles victory by Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool allowed Great Britain to become the first team to advance out of Davis Cup first-round qualifying.
Cash and Glasspool defeated Norway’s Nicolai Budkov Kjaer and Viktor Durasovic 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (5) in Oslo to give Great Britain an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the series. In a meaningless singles match that followed, Jacob Fearnley defeated Kjaer 3-6, 6-3, 10-7 to give Great Britain a 4-0 final margin with the last singles match canceled.
Five other first-round series got underway, with top-seeded Germany and Chile both jumping out to 2-0 leads.
At Dusseldorf, Germany, Yannick Hanfmann beat Gonzalo Bueno 6-4, 6-4 and Jan-Lennard Struff downed Juan Pablo Varillas 6-4, 6-2 to give the Germans the edge on Peru.
Chile, playing at home in Santiago, got a 7-5, 7-6 (7) victory from Tomas Barrios Vera over Dusan Lajovic while Alejandro Tabilo rallied past Ognjen Milic 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-4 to put the hosts on top of Serbia.
Liam Draxl got Canada off to a winning start by beating Brazil’s Joao Lucas Reis da Silva 6-3, 6-3 in Vancouver. However, Brazil leveled the series 1-1 when Gustavo Heide edged Gabriel Diallo 7-6 (4), 3-6, 7-6 (3).
Japan and Austria are tied 1-1 in Tokyo, and host Croatia is level with Denmark 1-1 in Varazdin.
–Field Level Media
