Caroline Garcia and Adrian Mannarino led France into the Sydney quarter finals at the United Cup.
Mannarino beat Lorenzo Sonego 6-4 6-4 in the men’s singles. Garcia followed with a 6-4 5-7 6-4 win over Jasmine Paolini to give France an unassailable 2-0 lead in Group D.
Mannarino did not face a break point and won 13 of the 18 points on the second serves. The Frenchman earned the first break in the third game and won his next service games to close out the first set 6-4.
Mannarino held his serve from 0-30 down in the second game of the second set and held serve at deuce in the fourth game. The Frenchman served out the first set 6-4 with a hold at love.
Sonego saved a break point to hold serve at deuce in the second game of the second set. Mannarino broke serve in the ninth game and served out the second set on his first match point. Mannarino drew level to 2-2 in his head-to-head matches against Sonego.
Mannarino won three titles and 43 matches on the ATP Tour in Sofia, Astana and Newport and reached the fourth round at the Australian Open last year in his best season on Tour.
“It’s always a tough match with him and in the second set I felt it could go either way. I was lucky at 4-all to go the break up and everything went my way today”, said Mannarino.
Sonego won eight of his past nine matches against Frenchmen.
Garcia won her first four head-to-head matches against Paolini, but the Italian player beat her French opponent 3-6 6-4 7-5 in Zhengzhou last October.
Garcia fired 11 aces and broke five times. The French player came back from 1-4 down to win the second set 6-4. The match was interrupted briefly when a spectator required medical attention. Garcia won of the first five games of the third set to open up a 4-1 lead. Paolini closed the gap from 1-4 to 3-4 and held serve in the ninth game, but Garcia held serve in the ninth game.
Elixane Lechemia and Edouard Roger Vasselin beat Flavio Cobolli and Nuria Brancaccio 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 in the mixed doubles match to seal a 3-0 win over France.