This is a great first for Caroline Garcia. Victorious over the American Coco Gauff (6-3, 6-4) on Tuesday in the quarter-finals of the US Open, the French reached for the first time in her career, the last four of a Grand Slam tournament , to challenge Ons Jabeur, Thursday September 8 in New York. The Lyonnaise and the Tunisian are both 28 years old, and know each other quite well, having faced each other on the junior circuit. Eight figures set the scene for this duel between two players whose styles are not very common on the circuit.
0 loss for Jabeur against Garcia
Ons Jabeur is undefeated on the WTA Tour against Caroline Garcia, with two victories in the first round of the 2019 US Open, and in the second round of the 2020 Australian Open. Worse still for the Frenchwoman’s supporters, the situation was the same on the junior circuit, with four victories for the Tunisian in four matches at Roland-Garros (in the 2nd round in 2010, in the semi-finals in 2011), Wimbledon (in the 1st round in 2010) and… the US Open (in the quarter-finals in 2010). Of these four confrontations among young people, the one who was at best 5th in the world among juniors took only one set from the one who peaked in 4th place.
0 sets lost by Garcia
In this 2022 edition of the US Open, Caroline Garcia has not lost a set. She even gave up, on average, only 2.7 games per set. It’s almost twice as much for Ons Jabeur (4.3), who left the first set to American Shelby Rodgers in the third round (4-6, 6-4, 6-3). It is above all the only semi-finalist to have conceded no round during the fortnight.
13 straight wins for Garcia
Since her victory against Diane Parry on August 13 in the first round of qualifying in Cincinnati, Caroline Garcia has had 13 wins in a row, winning her third career WTA 1000, her first since September 2017 (Beijing). Ons Jabeur then lost in the third round to Petra Kvitova, and is therefore “only” committed to a series of five consecutive victories in this US Open.
12 places difference in the world ranking
Before this US Open, On Jabeur was ranked 5th in the WTA, while Caroline Garcia had risen to 17th place. Twelve places therefore separated the two players at the start of the New York fortnight. If the Tunisian reached second place in the WTA rankings on June 27 after her final at Wimbledon, the Frenchwoman rose to fourth place on September 10, 2018, after reaching the 3rd round at the US Open, her best result in this tournament so far. Next Monday, Jabeur is already guaranteed to become Iga Swiatek’s runner-up again. As for Garcia, she will occupy at least 7th place.
1st for the African continent
The first Arab player to win a WTA 1000 tournament in May in Madrid, Ons Jabeur became the first player from the African continent to qualify for the semi-finals of the US Open. In the other Grand Slam tournaments, the South Africans Annette du Plooy, Yvonne Vermaak and Amanda Coetzer had also achieved this performance.
8th French in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam
After Françoise Dürr, Brigitte Simon, Mary Pierce, Nathalie Tauziat, Amélie Mauresmo, Nathalie Dechy and Marion Bartoli, Caroline Garcia has become the eighth Frenchwoman, in the Open era (since 1968), to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam.
Only two of them achieved this performance at the US Open (Pierce, Mauresmo), and only Mary Pierce qualified for the final, lost to Kim Clijsters in 2005. Among these eight French women in the semi-finals, four went to the final (Pierce, Tauziat at Wimbledon 1998, Mauresmo, and Bartoli), and three won (Pierce at the Australian Open 1995 and Roland Garros 2000, Amélie Mauresmo at the Australian Open 2006 and at Wimbledon 2006, then Bartoli at Wimbledon 2013).
3 – Caroline Garcia is only the third French female player to reach the semifinals at the US Open in the Open Era after Amelie Mauresmo (2002 and 2006) and Mary Pierce (2005). Trips.@WTA @WTA_insider #USOpen #USOpentennis #USOpen2022 pic.twitter.com/btkWc8PDCD
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) September 7, 2022
68 minutes gap on the courts
Caroline Garcia played her longest match in this US Open in the quarter-final against Coco Gauff (1h37), totaling 407 minutes on the court in five games. Ons Jabeur played 68 more minutes (475 in total), in particular because of her showdown against Shelby Rodgers (2h17).
3 titles this season for Garcia, 2 for Jabeur
Besides Cincinnati, Caroline Garcia also won the Bad Homburg (Germany) and Warsaw tournaments this year. That makes 10 WTA titles in the career of the Frenchwoman, against three for Ons Jabeur, victorious in 2022 in Madrid and Berlin.