With the French Open starting today, Benoit Paire offered some home encouragement as he brushed aside Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 6-3 in the final of the Lyon clay-court event.
The 30-year-old also won at Marrakech in April and will climb to 38th in the ATP rankings on Monday, when he also takes on Romania’s Marius Copil in the Roland Garros first round.
No Frenchman has lifted the French Open since Yannick Noah’s iconic victory in 1983.
“I started the season a little bit bad with some injuries... so it was not easy at the beginning,” Paire said.
“But I feel much better now. I feel good on court, I feel very confident. When you feel confident, you can win a lot of matches against good players.”
Putintseva wins her maiden title
Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva came back from a set down to beat unseeded Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia 4-6 6-4 6-2 and capture her first WTA singles title at the Nuremberg Cup on Saturday.
Top seed Putintseva converted six break points in all to finally win her first title in the third final of her career.
“It’s unbelievable, honestly. I enjoyed myself and I was fighting until the end,” she said. “It was a great fight, a great game for the final.
“Honestly, it was a little bit of luck, because I was running and hoping the ball was going to go in. When I was out of position, I was running and hit some incredible shots.”
The 24-year-old Putintseva, who lost in the St Petersburg final in 2017 and Guangzhou final last year, had been defeated by Zidansek in the pair’s only previous meeting in another three-setter in Morocco earlier this season.
It was Zidansek who broke a visibly angry Putintseva to take the first set but the Kazakh, twice a quarter-finalist at the French Open, gathered her composure to win the final two sets, dominating the third to bag the title.
“It is my best result this year, so no matter what happened today, I played well,” Zidansek said. “I’m going to go from Nuremberg with my head held high.”
Putintseva will not have much time to celebrate her victory though, as she heads straight to Roland Garros where she takes on Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson in the first round of the French Open, while Zidansek faces Belgium’s Elise Mertens.
Third title for
Yastremska
Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska beat France’s Caroline Garcia 6-4 5-7 7-6(3) in an thrilling match to win her third WTA singles title at the Strasbourg International yesterday.
Yastremska saved a championship point on her way to the title with the 19-year-old putting on a fearsome display of firepower in a match lasting a minute short of three hours.
“You’ve always been my idol, thank you for this match,” Yastremska said. “I was here two years ago and I lost in the first round. I almost lost at match point today but I’m happy to win.”
Garcia took an early lead in the opening set but Yastremska fought back to level at 3-3 with powerful baseline shots.
The Ukrainian stepped up her game to take the set with a mixture of baseline rallies and occasionally coming to the net to outfox her opponent.
Yastremska’s devastating forehand kept her in control in the second set and she held a 5-3 lead which gave her a chance to serve for the title.
Garcia saved two championship points, however, and forced a deciding set as Yastremska double-faulted.
After a tense final set Yastremska dominated the tiebreaker to join Kiki Bertens, Karolina Pliskova and Petra Kvitova as the only women to have won two titles this year.
Benoit Paire
