challenged from the start, Caroline Garcia comes out of it and joins the second round

The French number 1 fought three sets to qualify (4-6, 7-5, 6-2) against the German Eva Lys on Sunday.

A qualification for the second round validated, but a gauge of confidence good again far from being fulfilled. Caroline Garcia got scared, Sunday May 26, in the first round of Roland-Garros. The French number 1 needed three rounds and 2h12 of play to win against the German and 143rd in the WTA, Eva Lys (4-6, 7-5, 6-2).

The 23rd globalHowever, she had the advantage of ranking and experience against a player of 22 years from qualifications And who was taking his first steps in the main draw of Roland-Garros. On the Central, in a covered enclosure, the German and the French played for two sets to “yours, mine”, before Caroline Garcia took the advantage at the very end of the second round.

For its start in the tournament, the number 1 French woman demonstrated regularity… within irregularity. Faced with Eva Lys who played her luck, she offered the first set by conceding no less than 21 direct errors. Able to field 18 aces (including one on match point) to get out of tricky situations, the former world number 4 did not succeed in increasing her percentage of successful first serves (57% on average, only 51% on the first set).

His outbursts, like this cushion in the second game at the start of the second set, were followed by countless direct errors, more or less gross. In total, the Frenchwoman faulted 41 times (compared to 31 for his opponent) and committed a double fault eight times, including one just after taking his opponent’s service and the advantage (at 5-4, in the second set).

There, the French public woke up to push behind her champion and Eva Lys began to show her flaws, forcing her shots and pushing the ball out of the lines of the court. A fragility glimpsed when concluding the first round with in particular two set points sent into the corridor.

“It’s never easy to start a new Roland-Garros. Eva had a great match. She is young and arrived full of confidence. She caused me problems by being very aggressive”, conceded Caroline Garcia at the end of the meeting. “I managed to stay in the match and progress over time, to remain combative,” analyzed thea Frenchwoman, who is having a complicated start to the gravel season.

After reaching the semi-finals of the ATP tournament 250 from Rouen (lost to Sloane Stephens), Caroline Garcia did not manage to get past the second round in Madrid then Rome. She now has an appointment in the second round at Porte d’Auteuil with the American Sofia Kenin56th worldwide and endlist of French Opens in 2020.