Felix Auger-Aliassime and Adrian Mannarino will face each other for the third time in their careers when they compete for the Open Occitanie title on Sunday.
Auger-Aliassime is the defending champion in Montpellier and his return to the final is no surprise. The top-seeded Canadian is an absolute force indoors, so he went into this tournament as a big favorite. Auger-Aliassime also played like this and defeated Stan Wawrinka, Arthur Fils and Titouan Droguet without any problems. The world number 8 dropped a set to Droguet in the semi-finals, but promptly dominated the third 6-1.
Although Mannarino did not play well, his performance in the final is not entirely unexpected. After all, the 37-year-old generally excels indoors – and he is playing at home in France this week. Mannarino took a much more circuitous route to the championship match than Auger-Aliassime, needing three sets against Ugo Humbert, Arthur Gea and Martin Damm after opening with a routine victory over Pedro Martinez.
Mannarino has had three very tough games and will be playing a lot of defense on Sunday, so this will be a difficult situation for the veteran. Auger-Aliassime is likely on his way to a ninth ATP title – and an eighth on indoor hard courts.
Choice: Auger-Aliassime in 2
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