(Fort Worth) Arriving in Fort Worth (Texas) in the midst of uncertainty, after the surprise departure of her coach Bertrand Perret, Caroline Garcia chased away the doubts surrounding her with an authoritative victory at the expense of Coco Gauff, to ideally start the WTA Masters , tuesday.
Posted yesterday at 10:41 p.m.
The 29-year-old Frenchwoman, who had already taken the best this season from the American, eleven years her junior, in the quarter-finals of the US Open, won authoritatively 6-4, 6-3 in 1 h 19. It equalizes at 2-2 in their confrontations.
Sharp in the exchanges, with ball catches very early, especially on the backhand, Garcia overwhelmed Gauff, who was most often reduced to defending. She was able to further raise her level of play on the important points, like this successful break at 5-4 to pocket the first set.
His determination did not waver in the second race, like his good volleys. So after being unbroken (3-2), when the public dotted around the Dickies Arena thought they saw their American favorite revive, the Lyonnaise did not release the pressure and resumed her opponent’s service.
“The right state of mind”
An advantage that she never let go by relying on a good first ball, all the more effective as she was often a winner, even if in the end she only managed an ace. Enough to bring Garcia back to the top rank of players by having succeeded in the greatest number this year, tied with the Kazakh Elena Rybakina (370).
“I had the right mentality, the right state of mind today,” she immediately wanted to remember, as soon as her success was assured in two dry sets. This allows her to open the door to the semi-finals, which she had already reached during her first participation in this event in 2017.
At the time, in Singapore, she ended up giving in to the American Venus Williams, a prelude to four lackluster, sometimes even very difficult years, between crisis of confidence, quest for her own tennis and recurring physical concerns, which she managed to overcome this year, in spectacular fashion.
A renaissance in which Bertrand Perret played a leading role by consolidating it in its identity as a game, by encouraging it in particular to redouble its aggressiveness. Result: Garcia won this summer on German grass in Bad Homburg, on Polish clay in Warsaw and on American cement in Cincinnati, before reaching the semi-finals at the US Open.
What to spend in a few months from the 75e at the 6e global place.
Confirm against Swiatek
The only player to have won titles on all three surfaces in 2022, Garcia then decompensated somewhat, not escaping early eliminations in Tokyo, San Diego and Guadalajara in recent weeks.
And it was after the Mexican tournament that Bertrand Perret decided to put an end to their fruitful collaboration, barely eleven months after having started it. Without going into details, he explained to L’Équipe that extra-sporting problems had motivated his decision.
Without him, therefore, but with his parents in the stands and the punctual support of the Argentinian coach Juan Pablo Guzman, who had already worked with her last year, Garcia could not have started this test better, bringing together the eight best players of the season.
A rediscovered vigor which has something to reassure her and which she will have to confirm on Thursday, with a challenge of another size, against the world No.1 Iga Swiatek, winner at Roland-Garros and the US Open, who has easily disposed 6-2, 6-3 of the Russian Daria Kasatkina (N.8).
For confidence, Garcia will remember that she is one of the few to have beaten the Polish this season. It was in the quarter-finals on clay in Warsaw.
If she becomes the first to defeat her a second time in 2022, she will qualify for the semi-finals and send a serious message to the competition.