Journeyman Mannarino, who enjoyed his best-ever season last year, swept past Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 6-3 before Garcia overcame a stubborn Jasmine Paolini 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

It gave France an unassailable 2-0 lead over Italy in Sydney to put them into the knockout rounds of the mixed teams tournament.

The last quarterfinal slot will be decided when Greece meet Canada, with the winner facing the best runner-up from group play in Sydney.

The Perth quarterfinals are already locked in with the Iga Swiatek-led Poland meeting China today before Novak Djokovic’s Serbia takes on Australia.

Djokovic needed treatment on a sore wrist during his win over the Czech Republic’s Jiri Lehecka yesterday and faces another tough task against Australian No 1 Alex De Minaur.

The 35-year-old Mannarino won titles at Astana, Newport and Sofia last season to clock a personal best 43 wins, propelling him to a career-high 22.

After opening his season with a loss to world No 7 Alexander Zverev, the no-frills Frenchman proved too hot for 46th-ranked Sonego on a scorching day at Ken Rosewall Arena.

“It’s always a tough match with him and in the second set I felt it could go either way,” Mannarino said.

“I was lucky at four-all to go the break up and everything went my way today.”

The Frenchman didn’t face a break point and was solid throughout, especially on second serve, winning 13 of 18 points.

Garcia, who has slipped to No 20 in the rankings after hitting a career-high 4 in 2018, finished the job against Paolini.

But the 29th-ranked Italian refused to go quietly, pushing it to three hard sets over two hours and 16 minutes before Garcia served to love and banked the victory.