Tennis - Dazzling Paire beats Auger-Aliassime to win Lyon title

Tennis - Dazzling Paire beats Auger-Aliassime to win Lyon title
By Reuters
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(Reuters) - Frenchman Benoit Paire claimed his second claycourt title of the season with a convincing 6-4 6-3 defeat of Canadian teenager Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final of the Lyon Open on Saturday.

The bearded 30-year-old used his full repertoire of crafty drop shots to unsettle his young opponent who was hunting the first title of his career.

Paire's propensity to blow hot and cold was nowhere to be seen as he dominated the opening set and then recovered from a slight blip in the second to seal victory.

It was Paire's second win of the week over one of the rising Canadians having seen off Denis Shapovalov in the quarters.

Paire broke in the third game of the opener when Auger-Aliassime double-faulted and dictated the tempo thereafter, sealing the opener with an audacious backhand dropshot.

Auger-Aliassime, who has made stunning progress this year, rising to 28th in the ATP rankings, recovered an early break in the second set as Paire offered up some unforced errors.

A superb angled forehand winner gave Paire another break point at 2-2 though and Auger-Aliassime went wide to drop serve.

Paire finished with a flourish, reaching match point with backhand winner from out wide and wrapped it up on his first match point as his opponent half-volleyed into the tramlines.

Having also won in Marrakech this year, Paire will arrive in good heart for a long run at Roland Garros.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)

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