French tennis begins to dream. For almost a decade and the image of Marion Bartoli lifting the trophy at Wimbledon in 2013, the tricolor clan has never been so close to snagging a new Grand Slam title, the absolute reward in this sport.
Only two games now separate Caroline Garcia from the title at the US Open. Qualified for the semi-finals of the last Major of the year, the player is expected on the night of Thursday to Friday September 9 (at 1 a.m. French time) at Flushing Meadows to face the world number five, the Tunisian Ons Jabeur , another rising tennis star this season.
To climb into the last four of the New York tournament – only joined before her by the French Amélie Mauresmo in 2002 and 2006 and Mary Pierce in 2005 – the Lyonnaise offered a show of force, two days earlier, against the American Coco Gauff, one of the headliners for women and recent finalist at Roland-Garros. She cooled in two small sets (6-3, 6-4) and just over an hour and a half of play the public of the largest tennis stadium in the world. After a customary hug for her opponent, Caroline Garcia once again brought her nickname “Flying Caro” to life by mimicking the plane to rush to her loved ones in the stands.
???? The journey of @CaroGarcia :
✅ 1/64 b. Rakhimova 6/2 6/4 (1h21)
✅ 1/32 b. Kalinskaya 6/3 6/1 (1h00)
✅ 1/16 b. Andreescu 6/3 6/2 (1h27)
✅ 1/8 b. Riske 6/4 6/1 (1h22)
✅ 1/4 b. Gauff 6/3 6/4 (1h36)
➡️ 27 games lost (2.7 games/set)
➡️ 6h46 on the courtpic.twitter.com/QLc2EUrcEg— Game, Set and Maths (@JeuSetMaths) September 7, 2022
« Bulldozer »
The public is now used to it with the Frenchwoman, who has just won a thirteenth victory in a row. Since the beginning of the summer, the 28-year-old player shines on the women’s circuit, where her 31 successes in 35 matches led her to the title in Bad Homburg (Germany), Warsaw (Poland) and Cincinnati (United States) . On grass, clay or hard, regardless of the playing surface: the « bulldozer » Garcia, as featured in The Team the former French player Sophie Amiach sweeps away the competition, offering herself the world number one Iga Swiatek on her Polish soil in July. In Cincinnati, the Habs even became the first player in history to win a WTA 1000 (the most prestigious category after the four Grand Slams) starting from qualifications.
From 79th player in the world in the spring, the right-hander has thus propelled herself to 17th place and she will join the top 10 in the world next week. More precisely, she will make her return there, she who had already ranked among the four best players in 2018. A back and then sore feet kept her away from the heights for several years, while winning the 2019 Fed Cup with the ‘French team.
Former “future world number one”
A starving track record for the one that the world of the little yellow ball – including the Briton Andy Murray in person – had presented eleven years ago as the “future world number one”. The public then discovered her during a second round of Roland-Garros that she long thought she would win against the Russian Maria Sharapova. Before collapsing on the central Parisian court, overtaken by the stakes of the meeting.
« I was around 150th, 200th in the world, I was 17 and my game wasn’t ready. I was not able to play consistently at such a level. It was difficult, people expected a lot from me, but I was not ready for that. she recalled to the press after her quarter-final this week.
His father, who became his coach after leaving his first job, as was the case for Marion Bartoli or the American Serena Williams, had continued to guide his career, while lending the flank to criticism of this method. No longer able to go beyond the stage of the quarter-finals in the Grand Slam, which she had reached in 2017 at the Porte d’Auteuil, the Frenchwoman waited until last season to break with the family framework.
“Your career is made up of ups and downs, but you have to accept everything. There are passages that were painful, but we managed to bounce back well, she admitted during the New York fortnight, now supervised by coach Bertrand Perret. The biggest difference is that now I’m more in the court to receive the opposing serve and return as soon as possible. A lot of girls hit hard, take the ball early. I’m just trying to do everything a little faster and a little earlier. »
Bertrand Perret is known for having revealed other talents, like Paul-Henri Mathieu – ex-12th player in the world for men – or… the Tunisian Ons Jabeur. It remains to be seen which of the two will sparkle with the most brilliance during their confrontation for a place in the final.
