Doha Tournament | Garcia defeats Muchova in three hours and three sets

(Paris) Caroline Garcia, her left thigh bandaged, came up a set to eliminate the Czech Karolina Muchova (123^e world) 6-7 (3/7), 7-5, 6-4 in three hours, Wednesday when he entered the running at 2^e round of the WTA 500 tournament in Doha.

The Frenchwoman, 5^e and finalist in Lyon on February 5, will face Thursday, the Greek Maria Sakkari (7^e) for a place in the last four.

On Wednesday, for her first match since Lyon, she faced an opponent who dropped in the WTA rankings due to a long abdominal injury, but was 19^e in the WTA rankings and semi-finalist at the 2021 Australian Open.

And the Czech played at a much higher level than her current ranking.

It was she who made the first break in the game to break away in the first set and lead 5-3.

But Garcia, who had already reached the quarter-finals in Doha in 2018, managed to take his opponent’s serve in turn, taking the set to the tiebreaker.

The Czech then proved intractable.

In the second set, Garcia multiplied the break points (one in the fifth and seventh games, three in the ninth then four in the eleventh), but only managed to materialize the ninth to break away 6-5. She served for the set and didn’t miss the chance.

The pair then held off in the deciding set, but Garcia broke again late in the set to lead 5-4 and serve for the win, which she earned on her second match point with a tenth ace. .