Roundup: Fernandez, Medvedeva qualify for GP Final with Trophee de France titles

World champions Evgenia Medvedeva and Javier Fernandez claimed their second titles of the season in Paris with slightly flawed free skate but clean leads on Saturday to qualify for next month's Grand Prix Final in Marseille.

Skating to an Elvis Presley medley, Fernandez, a two-time world and four-time European champion, nailed down three quads to skate to victory in the men's event, though having crashed on his second triple Axel.

The Spaniard, fresh from his win at the Rostelecom Cup last week in Moscow, scored 188.81 points and racked up 285.38 points overall after leading the field into the free skate.

"I feel a bit tired," he said. "It is the first time I did two competitions back to back. I was happy that I was able to perform not perfect, but really good."

"I just hope to go to the Grand Prix Final in a better shape and try to fight to be on the podium one more time, hopefully for a better medal in the past years," he added.

Fernandez took silver in the year-end GP Final in Barcelona in 2014 and 2015.

His free skate score on Saturday was over 12 points lower than that in Cup of Russia, but enough for the 25-year-old to take gold by 16.12 points over a distant second Denis Ten, world and Olympic medialist from Kazakhstan.

Adam Rippon, who finally landed a quad in competition the day after turning 27, settled for the bronze medal after finishing the short program in the fourth spot, with 17.85 points back, edging fellow American Nathan Chen by 2.73 points.

In the women's event, Medvedeva also continued her streak of winning performances in Paris despite a tumble in her second jump, a triple Lutz.

Apart from the fall, the 16-year-old Russian landed six triples including a triple flip-triple toeloop and a triple Salchow-triple toeloop to get 143.02 in the free skate for a total 221.54.

With the second title won on an overall score having bettered that of her when taking the Skate Canada gold last month, Medvedeva will defend her Grand Prix final title in Marseille on Dec. 8-11.

Her teammate Maria Sotskova went for the silver in her debut on the senior Grand Prix with 21.19 points back, while Japan's teenage skater Wakaba Higuchi moved up from fifth to clich the bronze.

Earlier, world champions Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron won the ice dance in their first figure skating grand prix of the season following a big lead in the short program.

The French duo finished 18.92 points ahead of Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue, while Canada' s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier finished third.

In the pairs, Aliona Savchenko and Bruno Massot of Germany won with 210.59, and qualified for the GP Final in their first year on the circuit as a team.

The Trophee de France was the fourth event of the ISU Grand Prix series, to be followed by the Cup of China and the NHK Trophy this month. Endit