How hard it was! For the first time in this Australian fortnight, Caroline Garcia, seeded number 4, was pushed into the 3rd set by Laura Siegemund (158th player in the world), on Saturday, during the 3rd round of the Australian Open, before finally win (1-6, 6-3, 6-3). In the previous round, the French had maneuvered perfectly to afford Leylah Fernandez in two sets, a first real test. In the round of 16, Garcia will face Magda Linette or Ekaterina Alexandrova [19].
We had to try several times, but in the end Caroline Garcia let her rage speak to get a match that was far from easy. After having completely missed her start to the match, being dominated in all aspects of the game, the French number 1 recovered perfectly in the second set. All he needed then was a break and a longer, sharper game to pocket the set.
“In the second set, I was really on the edge of the abyss, at least I had to fight, I had a lot of support, thank you very much to the public”, confided the winner of the day after the meeting.
A third act with a knife then took shape. After a quick break in this final round, Caroline Garcia first conceded the break, before once again taking her opponent’s serve. Relying on 70% success on her first serves and 6 aces, the winner of the last Masters managed to resist, in particular at 4-3 to save a new break ball thanks to an ace, and to conclude on the service of Siegemund.
“The ranking does not mean everything, I have to concentrate and we start from 0 compared to last season”, assured Garcia, 4th player in the world. Now, the tricolor player can turn serenely to the round of 16, a stage she has never crossed in Melbourne.