Cazaux Truly A Hometown Hero In Montpellier Return

Arthur Cazaux, Montpellier
Arthur Cazaux (photo: Open Occitanie)

MONTPELLIER/WASHINGTON, January 27, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

With the Australian summer events finished, the ATP Tour has moved on to Europe for a series of winter indoor hard-court tournaments over the next few weeks in France (Montpellier and Marseille) and the Netherlands (Rotterdam). The first event, the ATP 250-series Open Occitanie, commenced Monday in Montpellier, a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea.

Defending champion and this year’s fourth seed is No. 39 Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, who also won the Montpellier title in 2022. He is joined by Top-10 star Andrey Rublev of Russia, who is the No. 1 seed and in search of his first win of the year after early exits in Hong Kong and at the Australian Open. No. 23 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, a semifinalist from 2024, is seeded second, and No. 34 Flavio Cobolli of Italy is the third seed. Each of the top four seeds have received byes into the second round.

Other seeds include: No. 5 Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands (ranked 46th), No. 6 David Goffin of Belgium (ranked 56th), No. 7 Arthur Rinderknech (ranked 61st) and No. 8 Bu Yunchaokete of China (ranked 71st).

The top-seeded doubles team is defending champions Sadio Dumbia and Fabien Reboul of France, who won their first ATP Tour doubles title in Montpellier a year ago. The No. 2 seeds are Jamie Murray of Great Britain and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France.

Cazaux defeats Wawrinka, Auger-Aliassime is next

With a light schedule on opening day of the main draw, featuring three matches on Court Patrice Dominguez inside Sud de France Arena, much of the attention was focused on the intergenerational matchup of 39-year-old Stan Wawrinka against hometown favorite Arthur Cazaux, a young, 22-year-old dashing Frenchman born in the Occitanie, who came in looking to crack the Top 100 for good after being ranked as high as No. 63 last year. In Wawrinka, he faced an opponent he watched and admired growing up as boy in southern France.

The 15th edition of the tournament – and first indoor event of the 2025 season – got underway in fine fashion for the 101st-ranked Cazaux, who parlayed a break in each set to beat the 154th-ranked Swiss wild card, 6-4, 6-3, in an hour and 28 minutes.

After breaking Wawrinka’s serve in the very first game of the match, he broke the Swiss veteran, again, to go ahead for good in the second, up a set and 3-2. Although it was the second time in seven tries that Cazaux had broken Wawrinka’s serve, the three-time major champion remained spirited on the court. Cazaux would go on to break Wawrinka one more time during the final game of the match.

While Wawrinka fought for every point – and his one-fisted backhand dazzled the crowd – it was the Montpellier-native Cazaux, who became the hometown hero by the end of the first-round match. He put away match point on his first try and it drew warm applause from the Montpellier crowd. The two players exchanged pleasantries at the net. All was good.

“It was such an honor for me to share the court with him today,” Cazaux said during his on-court interview following his win against Wawrinka. “Of course, I watched him when I was very young on TV, when he won the three Grand Slams. It was really an honor for me. It wasn’t easy since we’re agreed to play doubles and we practiced together when met a couple of days ago on the court. I’m pretty happy with my win today.”

Indeed, Cazaux and Wawrinka are entered in the 16-team doubles draw and will play their first match on Tuesday against Tallon Griekspoor and Bart Stevens of the Netherlands.

Cazaux won 85 percent of his first-set points, hit 13 winners, converted three of eight break points and outpointed Wawrinka 66-54.

The victory advanced Cazaux to face No. 2 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime for the second time in two years in Montpellier in the second round on Wednesday. More recently, Cazaux lost a three-setter to Auger-Aliassime earlier this month in the second round at Adelaide.

• Also advancing Monday:  No. 8 seed Bu Yunchaokete of China, who eased past No. 91 Daniel Altmaier of Germany, 7-6 (1), 6-3, in one hour and 43 minutes. The 71st-ranked Bu, who was seeded for the first time in a tour-level event, won 82 percent of his first-serve points and backed it by winning 70 percent of points on his second serve. He saved both break points he faced, broke Altmaier twice in four tries, hit 17 winners and outpointed him 79-61. In the second round, Bu will face either No. 177 Constant Lestienne of France or No. 103 Borna Coric of Croatia, who play Tuesday.

• No. 118 Dominik Koepfer of Germany defeated 144th-ranked Gregoire Barrere of France, 6-4, 7-6 (5), in an hour and 35 minutes, to win his Montpellier debut. The 30-year-old German, who hadn’t won a tour-level match since advancing to the third round at the Paris Olympics last July, hit 22 winners and outpointed Barrere 76-69. Next, Koepfer will play defending champion and No. 1 seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan.

• Meanwhile, Dutch duo Robin Haase and Botic van de Zandschulp overcame French wild cards Richard Gasquet and Lucas Pouille, 6-7 (6), 6-3, 11-9, to move into the quarterfinal round. Joining Haase and van de Zandschulp in the last eight are No. 3 seeds Yuki Bhambri of India and Ivan Dodig of Croatia, who needed a match tie-break to defeat Germany’s Jakob Schnaitter and Mark Wallner, 7-5, 3-6, 10-8.

Around the Open Occitanie

The 28-player main draw was filled out with the addition of four players, who advanced through two rounds of qualifying. Top-seeded qualifier Aleksandar Kovacevic of the United States, ranked 102nd, advanced over No. 151 Pablo Carreño Busta of Spain, 6-3, 7-6 (4). Also, No. 177 Constant Lestienne defeated fellow Frenchman Terence Atmane, ranked 159th, 6-4, 6-0; No. 199 Alibek Kachmazov of Russia rallied to beat No. 190 Hugo Grenier of France, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-1; and No. 178 Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia, who advanced by retirement over No. 175 Titouan Droguet of France, leading 3-6, 6-3, 5-4.

Kachmazov will face No. 111 Christopher Eubanks of the United States in the first round, Basilashvili will oppose No. 112 Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan, Kovacevic will take on No. 6 seed David Goffin of Belgium, and Lestienne will meet No. 103 Borna Coric of Croatia.

Monday’s Open Occitanie results

Tuesday’s Open Occitanie order of play

By the numbers

• Frenchmen Richard Gasquet and Gaël Monfils co-share the tournament record for most singles titles with three. Gasquet, who won the 2013, 2015 and 2016 titles, also holds the Montpellier record for most tournament wins with 28. He is making his farewell to Montpellier this week. The 38-year-old from Beziers, announced last year he will retire from pro tennis later at the French Open.

• Of the 28 players comprising the main draw, nine of them are from France: Gregoire Barrere, Arthur Cazaux, Richard Gasquet, Quentin Halys, Constant Lestienne, Adrian Mannarino, Harold Mayot, Lucas Pouille and Arthur Rinderknech.

“Quotable …”

“I had to stay focused because he played better in the second set. He served better, so it wasn’t easy for me to put pressure on his service games. I’m pretty happy with the win because I played a pretty good level during the whole match.”

– Arthur Cazaux of France, during his on-court interview Monday, describing how he managed to stay focused throughout his win over Stan Wawrinka.

 

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