Lyon - With the French Open starting on Sunday, Benoit Paire offered some home encouragement as he brushed aside Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 6-3 in the final of the Lyon clay-court event.
The 30-year-old also won at Marrakech in April and will climb to 38th in the ATP rankings on Monday, when he also takes on Romania's Marius Copil in the Roland Garros first round.
No Frenchman has lifted the French Open since Yannick Noah's iconic victory in 1983.
"I started the season a little bit bad with some injuries... so it was not easy at the beginning," Paire said.
"But I feel much better now. I feel good on court, I feel very confident. When you feel confident, you can win a lot of matches against good players."
