Patient, precise, constant: that was all it took for Adrian Mannarino to validate, on Monday, his ticket for the fourteenth final of his career on the main circuit. In the semi-finals of the ATP 250 in Astana (Kazakhstan), the 35-year-old Frenchman (34th ATP) comfortably defeated the Austrian Sebastian Ofner, 58th in the world, 6-4, 6-2.
Led 4-2, 30-15 by an opponent more powerful than him (a problem he frequently encounters on the circuit), Mannarino then didn’t miss much in the first set, often pushing Ofner to score one. a little too much, or end up off-centering your shot.
In the second set, the Frenchman benefited from a white break offered by his opponent at 2-2 and he went for a second, at 4-2, to lock things up (6-4, 6-2 in 1h10). “It was better than yesterday,” Mannarino confided at the stadium microphone, just after his victory, referring to his painful quarter against Rodionov on Sunday, “but I am convinced that I can do even better than that. I was just solid and he was perhaps tired from the day before. In any case, I felt him decline physically in the second set. »
Eleven victories in his last thirteen matches
At 35 years old, Mannarino is experiencing one of the best seasons of his career in 2023. This year, he has already beaten three top 10s (Hurkacz, Medvedev, Fritz), which had only happened to him once, in 2017, and reached three finals (Mallorca, Newport, Astana), which had also only happened to him once. happened only once, in 2019. For the past month and a half, he has had eleven victories out of thirteen matches and has only had to admit defeat against Alexandre Zverev (in Cincinnati) and Frances Tiafoe (at the US Open). With 36 victories, he has also already broken his record for the number of matches won in the same year on the main circuit.
In the final, to continue to boost his success percentage in this area (only three finals won out of thirteen, for the moment), he will have to beat Sebastian Korda. Cut off in his momentum by a wrist injury after a very good start to the season (quarters in Melbourne after victories against Medvedev and Hurkacz), Korda has found his rhythm in recent weeks. The American, 28th ATP this week, has won nine of his last eleven matches. Mannarino is aware of the danger: “Sebastian is a great player, I have never faced him or trained with him, so it will be something completely new.” With the key, if successful, a return to the top 25 in the world.
