After Alizé Cornet and Diane Parry on Friday, Caroline Garcia in turn won the Billie Jean King Cup play-offs on Saturday at Le Portel. The recent Masters winner dominated the Dutch Lesley Kerkhove (6-2, 6-3) and thus allowed the French team to dominate the Netherlands, by three victories to nil, and to save their place in the elite of the Billie Jean King Cup for 2023.
With a 203-place difference in the world rankings (4th vs 207th), this match between Garcia and Kerkhove, swept away on Friday by Cornet in less than an hour (6-2, 6-0), looked very much like a nice end excursion season for the recent Masters winner.
From Dallas to Portel, in just five days, the 29-year-old Lyonnaise could not have lost her tennis, her physique or her confidence. And there was a way to end a magnificent season in style by also sending the promising signal of an investment next year in the French team which could augur a very high ambition for Julien Benneteau and his players.
In a cauldron aptly named, Caroline Garcia first dismissed a break point then she was able to quickly get the machine going, chaining aces and winning shots (14 in the first set alone) like a joke. A few second serves at more than 150 km/h even reminded us how much audacity was in power.
Draw for the 2023 edition on Sunday
But Kerkhove, who had pushed Iga Swiatek to three sets at the last Wimbledon, even getting two break points from the third set, also tried to let her offensive tennis speak with a free spirit, faced with the almost impossible mission. which had been entrusted to him.
However, at 2-3, it was on a double fault committed while stepping back that the Dutchwoman gave up her commitment. After just over twenty minutes of play, Caroline Garcia could begin to soar towards victory, regaling the Portel crowd with impressive shots, even if her opponent more or less managed to stay the course until the end. Led 0-40 when she served for the match, the French n°1 dismissed this ultimate (small) danger by aligning the last five points with authority (6-2, 6-3 in 1h22).
The next meeting of the France team is set for the spring of 2023, when it will be a question of playing a qualifying match for the final phase, on April 14 and 15. The draw which will determine the next opponent of Les Bleues will be carried out on Sunday, in Glasgow, just before the final of this 2022 edition.
