Garcia clinches United Cup quarterfinal berth for France

Caroline Garcia steered France into the Sydney quarterfinals of the United Cup on Wednesday with a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win over Italy's Jasmine Paolini. 

Garcia's singles win followed a 6-4, 6-4 win for Adrian Mannarino over Lorenzo Sonego in men's singles, giving France an unassailable 2-0 lead in the tie and clinching its spot atop Group D. As the group winners, France will face Norway in the quarterfinals. 

World No.20 Garcia won the first eight sets -- and four matches -- of her head-to-head against Paolini, the World No.29, but their last two meetings have gone the distance. In 2 hours and 17 minutes, Garcia flipped the script of the result of their last meeting -- a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 win for the Italian on the hard courts of Zhengzhou, China in October. 

Garcia served 11 aces in victory, and broke serve five times. After getting even from 4-1 behind in the second set, she regrouped well to start the decider after the match was briefly paused at that juncture when a spectator required medical attention. She won four of the first five games of the third, and emphatically slammed the door on the match by holding to love -- after Paolini kept the pressure on her by not only closing the deficit from 4-1 to 4-3, but holding serving in the ninth game. 

"I tried to stay calm when I lost the second set after getting some opportunity," Garcia said. "[It] was a good match. Obviously some tension out there. But the attitude made me stay positive. I tried to go get the match at the end. It made the difference."

Mannarino, meanwhile, did not face a break point, and was solid throughout the duration of his 

His biggest concern came in the second game of the second set after he fell behind 0-30. In a burst of frustration, Mannarino pounded his forehead with the butt of his racquet, which opened up a small wound that resulted in a play stoppage and treatment by an ATP physio.

“It’s always a tough match with him and in the second set I felt it could go either way,” Mannarino said. “I was lucky at 4-all to go the break up and everything went my way today.”

Elixane Lechemia and Edouard Roger-Vasselin completed the 3-0 victory for France with a 7-6(5), 6-4 win over Nuria Brancaccio and Flavio Cobolli.

France won five of its six matches in group play, tied with Poland for the best mark in the 2024 United Cup.