Garcia back at the Masters, five years later

Her successful summer will have borne fruit: Caroline Garcia won her ticket for the WTA Masters on Wednesday, organized this year in Fort Worth, Texas, during the Guadalajara tournament (Mexico). Coming into contention the day before in the second round, Garcia had somehow won his first victory there since his semi-final at the US Open, the high point of his flamboyant summer, taking another step towards the prestigious you at the end of the season which begins in about ten days (October 31-November 7).

The defeat on Wednesday, as soon as she entered the Mexican tournament, of Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, strapped right calf and left thigh, also a candidate for qualification for the Masters, recorded that of the Frenchwoman, now assured of finishing in the eight best players of the season, as well as that of the young American Coco Gauff (18 years old). Garcia, 29 years old since Sunday, invites himself for the second time in his career to the meeting bringing together the Top 8 of the season. For her first participation, in 2017, her best season so far, the Lyonnaise had made it to the semi-finals, beaten by Venus Williams.

She joins there, in addition to Gauff, the world N.1 Iga Swiatek, winner of Roland-Garros and the US Open this season, the Tunisian Ons Jabeur, double Grand Slam finalist this year, and the American Jessica Pegula. Three tickets are still in play. It was her backfiring summer that propelled Garcia to the Masters, after a delicate first half of the season which saw her vegetate around the 70th place in the world, and, before, several years without shine during which she seemed in perdition, weighed down by injuries (back, foot) and low confidence.

In full doubt in the spring

Between mid-June and mid-September, Garcia scored 31 successes in 36 matches, with a semi-final at the US Open, his very first Grand Slam, preceded by three trophies raised on three different surfaces, in Bad Homburg ( Germany) on grass, Warsaw on clay (beating Swiatek in passing), and, above all, in Cincinnati on hard. Behind the scenes, it was in 2021 that Garcia had started his revolution by distancing his father Louis-Paul, his lifelong coach, and choosing to work with Bertrand Perret, ex-coach of Jabeur in particular, and physical trainer Laura Legoupil.

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«I feel much better physically, it’s already a big step. We have clearly defined the way I have to play, the direction I have to take. When I step on the court, I know what style of game I have to practice“Completed Garcia. In this case, an ultra aggressive game, with high risk taking. “That’s how I actually learned to play. I had my doubts, because it didn’t always work. You have to try to forget what people say, but it always gets to your ears one way or another… And it affects you. The road has not been straight“, she retraced.

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Before this revival, the ex-N.4 world – his best ranking reached in 2018 – was still in full doubt in the spring, bothered by his left foot (at the level of the aponeurosis). “I couldn’t get out of my foot injuries… (When) after ten days on crutches, you realize that you can’t walk anymore, you doubt a lot, she said during her adventure New Yorker. But I was well surrounded to take things step by step.“Before Fort Worth, the next step is a round of 16 in Guadalajara against the Swiss Belinda Bencic or the American Sloane Stephens. The liberated mind.

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