Adrian Mannarino becomes the oldest champion and first Frenchman to win the Winston-Salem Open

French tennis star Adrian Mannarino has won the 11th annual Winston-Salem Open professional tennis tournament. The weeklong event was marked by sold-out stadiums, cooperative weather — and an unexpected champion.

With all eyes on former top five players Dominic Thiem and Grigor Dimitrov, the 34-year-old Mannarino began the tournament under the radar. He struggled mightily in his first-round match against Australian Christopher O'Connell who only recently cracked the top 100, eventually winning a grinding three hours plus match with each set going into a tiebreaker.

But from there, he never dropped a set. The veteran's consistent groundstrokes and strong serving left several rising stars in his wake, including the runner-up, Serbian Laslo Djere.

Overall it was an exciting record-setting week for Mannarino: The oldest champion in the tournament's history, the first of five French finalists, and a world ranking jump up 20 places to number 45. But you'd never guess it from the famously soft-spoken Mannarino during his post-match press conference.

Of his remarkable week, Mannarino said he was happy, and characterized the win as "unexpected, but it's good news.”

As far as being the first Frenchman to win the Winston-Salem Open, he said, “Well, this is not such an important thing to me.”

When asked about returning in 2023, he said he's going to "enjoy the moment first," and will "think about next year another time.”

Next up for Mannarino: The U.S. Open in New York where he'll face world number 181, Gijs Brouwer of the Netherlands, in the first round.