Adrian Mannarino admitted he was having difficulties with seeing the ball at the start of his Winston-Salem Open final versus Laslo Djere. In the Winston-Salem final, 34-year-old Mannarino recovered from an early break down to beat Djere 7-6 (1) 6-4 and become the oldest winner in tournament history.
“I had some trouble today to see the ball,” Mannarino said after the win, per the ATP website. “The conditions last night, playing at night with the cold weather was so different than playing today with h*t weather and clear blue skies.
So it took me a little bit of time to get used to it but I was able to keep my nerve and just be focused on what I had to do. I was able to break back at 4-3 and then I kept being consistent until the end. I knew that Laslo had a really exhausting week and probably if we were going to have a tough battle I would get the win because physically I was a little bit fresher.”
Mannarino recovered from a slow start to the match
Djere got off to a good start, claiming the first break of the match in the third game to open a 2-1 lead. In the fifth game, Djere had two break points to go up by a double break but didn’t convert.
After saving two break points in the fifth game, Mannarino broke back Djere in the eighth game to tie the set to four games apiece and completely get back into the first set. As no more breaks were seen – the first set went into a tie-break – where the two players were tied to one point apiece before Mannarino won six consecutive points to win the opener.
After winning the first set, Mannarino earned the first break of the second set in the seventh game to open a 4-3 lead. Mannarino missed out on a match point in the ninth game but routinely served out for the match in the 10th game. Mannarino doesn’t have much time to rest as he plays Gijs Brouwer in the US Open first round.
