Adrian Mannarino makes winning return to Almaty

Adrian Mannarino has begun his return to the Almaty tournament with a victory and a measure of revenge. The French veteran was absent from the previous edition and had not played at the event since 2024, when Aleksandar Vukic ended his run in the second round. Mannarino, who won the tournament in 2023, will now face a seeded opponent for a place in the quarter-finals.

The 79th-ranked Frenchman defeated Vukic, currently 116th in the world, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 after two hours and 30 minutes. He took the opening-set tiebreak 7-4, but the Australian responded by winning the second set. Mannarino recovered in the decider and completed the comeback against the same player who had beaten him in straight sets almost two years earlier.

The win extends a productive spell for the 38-year-old. Mannarino reached the quarter-finals in Chengdu before progressing to the third round of the Shanghai Masters, where he eliminated Flavio Cobolli, the world number six. His next assignment in Almaty will be against Andrey Rublev, the fourth seed and world number 22, who received a first-round bye. Rublev has won four of their five meetings, including all four of his victories without losing a set, leaving Mannarino with a difficult second-round challenge.