Two for two: Ferro repeats against Mladenovic in French exhibition

CANNES, France - Make it 10 wins in 10 matches for Fiona Ferro across the first two weeks of the non-WTA exhibition event in France. 

The French No.3 had an undefeated run last week in Nice in the first leg of action of the national tournament, pulled off a similar one on the hard courts of Cannes to win the second leg over Kristina Mladenovic on Saturday, 6-1, 3-6, 10-5.

Read more: Ferro wins first French tennis exhibition in Nice

The three-week exhibition series, set up by the FFT to prepare its men and women for the tours' resumptions next month, will conclude next week in Villeneuve-Loubet. 

“At the beginning, we were both very tense," Ferro said after the match. "The first three, four games, I found that it didn't play very well and then we found our rhythm.

"The objective [is now] to keep this shape to be able to arrive at [WTA] tournaments with confidence."

In this week's knockout rounds, the eventual champion was given a stern test by former junior World No.1 Diane Parry in the quarterfinals, eventually overcoming the 17-year-old, 7-5, 4-6, 10-4, before easing past Harmony Tan, 6-2, 6-1.

On the other side of the draw, Mladenovic beat Pauline Parmentier for the second week running, 6-2, 2-6, 10-3, before upending Alizé Cornet, 6-2, 6-4. 

In round robin action, Mladenovic went 1-1 in Group A and qualified in second behind Chloe Paquet, beating Clara Burel, 7-6(4), 7-5, and losing to Paquet, 6-4, 6-4.

In Group B, Ferro dropped just six games in her two victories against Myrtille Georges (6-0, 6-2) and Tessah Andrianjafitrimo (6-3, 6-1) to qualify first, ahead of Georges. 

In the women's bracket, 12 players are divided into four round-robin groups, with the top-two finishers in each group advancing to the knockout rounds.

The final leg of the tournament will be held at the Tennis Club de la Vanade from July 20-25.