She had already shivered when she entered the race; this time, Caroline Garcia ended up giving in. Against Anna Blinkova (56ᵉ), who had already beaten her in three sets at the same stage of the tournament and on the same court four years ago, the No. 5 seed lost once again (4-6, 6-3, 7 – 5) in the second round of Roland-Garros, Wednesday 31 May.
History, however, seemed destined not to repeat itself. Acclaimed as soon as she entered the field, the Frenchwoman was incisive and made the break from the 3ᵉ game of the match. Solid and imperturbable, she maintained the leadership throughout the set, which she finished with an ace.
In a good-natured atmosphere, with many “Dear! Carol! » launched from the stands and a fanfare that marked the changes of sides, the Lyonnaise continued her momentum and took her opponent’s serve at the beginning of the second set. Then the wind changed.
“Things got a bit stuck, I tensed up. In the first set I gave my all in my picks, in my shots, analyzed the interested party after the match. Afterwards, I started being passive. When I’m more wait-and-see, I find it harder to read the game and move around. I struggled to get out of it and when I did it was too intermittent. »
The powerful Russian, who had hitherto suffered adverse attacks, managed to impose her pace, prompting Caroline Garcia to force her shots and multiply her unforced errors. The Frenchwoman tried to pull herself together in the third set, but she was the recent finalist in Strasbourg (last week) to break first and seemed to be aiming straight for the win.
Not to mention the pride of the “local”, driven by the 15,000 spectators in the central field. Caroline Garcia erased three early match points thanks to three game-winning shots before the break. Serving for the match, a second time, at 6-5, the Russian got scared again. At the end of the suspense, after two hours and fifty one minutes of match and her ninth match point: she ended up winning.
A disappointing 2023 season
Though seeded No. 5 and France’s best chance (men’s and women’s combined), the Frenchwoman hadn’t arrived at Roland-Garros in the best of moods, having won just three matches in three tournaments on the ocher surface. But she wanted to be optimistic. In particular, for the return of her coach, Bertrand Perret. “He understands my style of play very well. He is very open in the way he trains me. (…) I have to feel comfortable with my coach and this is the case with Bertrand. It’s important, because it affects my game.”, he had detailed, on May 26, a few days before the start of the tournament.
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