Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime successfully defended his Open Occitanie championship on Sunday with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory over Adrian Mannarino in Montpellier, France.
Auger-Aliassime, 25, recorded 13 aces and won 87% of his first-serve points to dispatch the Frenchman in 1 hour, 35 minutes. The ninth career ATP title for Auger-Aliassime is one more than Milos Raonic for the most tour-level titles by a Canadian in the Open Era.
A strong service game was nothing new for Auger-Aliassime, who delivered 20 aces while posting a 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-1 victory over French qualifier Titouan Droguet on Saturday.
Auger-Aliassime will elevate one spot to No. 6 in the ATP rankings on Monday.
Davis Cup
The fifth-seeded United States finished a 4-0 sweep of host Hungary on Sunday in Tatabanya to advance to the second round of Davis Cup qualifying.
Christian Harrison and Austin Krajicek defeated Hungary’s Fabian Marozsan and Zsombor Piros in doubles action 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, and Emilio Nava defeated Matyas Fuele 6-2, 6-3 to close out the first round against unseeded Hungary.
In more dramatic action, unseeded host South Korea rallied for a 3-2 win over ninth-seeded Argentina in Busan. After the Argentinian doubles team of Guido Andreozzi and Federico Agustin Gomez defeated Jisung Nam and Uisung Park 6-3, 7-5 to go up 2-1, the Koreans rallied behind a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory from Soonwoo Kwon over Thiago Agustin Tirante and a 6-4, 6-3 win by Hyeon Chung over Marco Trungelliti in the decisive match.
Host India also won 3-2 in the decisive fifth match, beating the fourth-seeded Netherlands in Bengaluru thanks to a 6-4, 7-6 (4) win from Dhakshineswar Suresh over Guy Den Ouden. India also claimed the doubles point in three sets while Dutch competitor Jesper De Jong won the fourth match 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 to level it at 2-2.
Entering the day tied at 1, sixth-seeded France beat visiting Slovakia in both matches in Le Portel. Arthur Rinderknech defeated Alex Molcan 7-5, 7-6 (6) to clinch the result after doubles pair Benjamin Bonzi and Pierre-Hugues Herbert beat Milos Karol and Lukas Klein 6-2, 6-3.
Host Czechia entered Sunday with a 2-0 lead over visiting Sweden and clinched its spot in the second round with the doubles point in Jihlava. Petr Nouza and Patrik Rikl escaped with a 7-6 (4), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4) win over Andre Goransson and Erik Grevelius. Ollie Wallin beat Maxim Mrva 6-4, 7-6 (1) in Match 4 to put a point on the board for the Swedes.
Belgium completed a 4-0 sweep of host Bulgaria with two more wins in Plovdiv. Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen won the doubles point 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) over Alexander Donski and Pyotr Nesterov, and Raphael Collignon defeated Ivan Ivanov 6-2, 6-2.
Host Ecuador finished off a 3-1 upset of No. 2 seed Australia in Quito with Gonzalo Escobar and Diego Hidalgo winning in doubles, 7-6 (5), 6-4, over Rinky Hijikata and Jordan Thompson. Jason Kubler beat Emilio Camacho 6-4, 6-2 to salvage a point for the Aussies.
The second round of Davis Cup qualifying is set for Sept. 18-20, with the finals set for Nov. 24-29.
–Field Level Media
