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The Dallas Open organizers figured out a hilarious way to wish Adrian Mannarino all the best going forward as the Frenchman was gifted a tequila bottle after previously revealing that discovering tequila led to him playing his career-best tennis at 35.
Following his Australian Open round-of-16 win over Ben Shelton, Mannarino had a funny moment with an on-court interviewer. Before 34, Mannarino had one ATP title in his pocket. Since celebrating his 34th birthday in 2022 June, Mannarino has won four more ATP titles. Also, Mannarino is currently enjoying a career-high ranking of No. 17 in the world.
“I started tequila,” Mannarino said at the Australian Open when asked what´s his secret to getting better with age.
“That helps to not think too much, you just need to keep going and sometimes you need to clear your brain and stop thinking about the past and just keep going. Don’t look back and just go.”
The Dallas Open gifts Mannarino a bottle of tequila
This week, Mannarino competed at an ATP 250 event in Dallas, where he as the No. 4 seed made the semifinal before Marcos Giron handed him a 6-1 6-3 loss. After the match, Mannarino was presented with a gift that should "set him up to succeed."
Mannarino was gifted a bottle of tequila last night in Dallas to 'set him up to succeed' ðŸ˜ðŸ¥ƒ@BlairHenley you legend pic.twitter.com/P5d8CVNyXQ
— Bastien Fachan (@BastienFachan) February 10, 2024
Although Mannarino entered the Giron match as the favorite, he didn't stand much of a chance early on as the 67th-ranked American started the match with back-to-back breaks to open an early 4-0 lead. Mannarino served out the fifth game to finally get on the board but still easily lost the first set after getting broken again in the seventh game.
In the second set, both players firmly held on to their serves until the eighth game, when Giron earned the first break points of the set and converted them to go 5-3 up. With a chance to serve out for the match, Giron got the job done as he realized his first match point in the ninth game.