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After years of doubt, Caroline Garcia has regained her tennis in this year 2022. She challenges Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in the final of the WTA Masters on the night of Monday to Tuesday to conclude this year in style on what would be the most prestigious title. of her career.
Caroline Garcia’s 2022 vintage is tasty. Motivated, determined and offensive, Caroline Garcia offered her first final of the WTA Masters on Monday November 7, beating 6-3, 6-2 the Greek Maria Sakkari,
She is only the third Frenchwoman to reach this stage of the prestigious event, which brings together the best tenniwomen of a season, and she may become the second to add her name to the list, after Amélie Mauresmo, crowned at the expense of Mary Pierce. in 2005, during a 100% tricolor final from another time.
“It’s an additional, very important step in my career, I’m really very proud,” said the 29-year-old Lyonnaise at a press conference. She will challenge on the night of Monday to Tuesday (3 a.m. Paris time) Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, surprise faller of world number 1 Iga Swiatek.
The revival of “Sweet Caroline”
The summer of 2022 will have been the return to grace for Caroline Garcia. Caroline Garcia, who was at 79e world rank in May, began a fantastic rise in the WTA rankings: it now points to 6e square. Along the way, she won on the grass of Bad Homburg and the clay of Warsaw, where she offered herself the scalp of the world No. 1, the Polish Iga Swiatek.
She then won the Cincinnati Masters 1000 – the highest level in tennis outside of the Grand Slams. She had not won in this category since 2017. For the native of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the doubts of recent years now seem behind her as the US Open approaches, where she will have a card to play, given his condition.
Her performance in Ohio also goes down in tennis history, as she is the first player to win a WTA 1000 from qualifying. Only the Briton Emma Raducanu did better last year, by doing the same type of dizzying course, to win at Flushing Meadows, a Grand Slam tournament.
At the US Open, she won her first Major semi-final but lost to Ons Jabeur. And through her playing, the American public has become a fan of “Sweet Caroline”, singing the old ballad for her matches. As his final in Fort Worth proves, we have to believe that the United States does well for him.
A wonderful fortnight in 2017 and crossing the desert
This wonderful summer was like a breath of fresh air for Caroline Garcia. The Frenchwoman has had several complicated years after what was so far the peak of her career: October 2017 and the Chinese tour marked by eleven victories in two weeks and two titles in a row (Wuhan and Beijing) against what women’s tennis did best then: Kerber, Svitolina, Halep…
If she reached fourth place in the WTA rankings shortly after, a period of wanderings and doubts followed, to which were added recurring physical problems. Caroline Garcia loses herself in the game, hesitating between completely reinventing herself or capitalizing on her ultra-aggressive style.
“I feel much better physically, in better health. It’s already a big step. We have clearly defined the way I have to play, the direction I have to take. When I enter the court, I know what style game I have to practice“, she explained during the summer.
Garcia then used the “we” wisely. Because his return to his best level has been taking place since the end of 2021 under the aegis of a new coach Bertrand Perret, who succeeded his father Louis-Paul. And the former coach of Ons Jabeur made him understand that his style of play, aggressive, sharp, made of taking risks by taking the ball very early, was in fact … the right one. It was this game that had made him rise to 4e world place in 2018, a year after two first titles in the WTA 1000, in Wuhan and Beijing.
A decompression and a new march forward
The professional love at first sight, however, ended in blood sausage. Just before the Masters, Bertrand Perret suddenly decided to end their fruitful collaboration, citing problems that had arisen in recent weeks. Hectic weeks during which Caroline Garcia chained disappointments, probably the victim of a decompression after her beautiful summer.
Without him now, therefore, but always with her parents to surround her and the occasional help of the Argentinian coach Juan Pablo Guzman, who had already worked with her last year, she nevertheless knew how to regain momentum at the best time. . In the heart of a rodeo of strong emotions in the heart of Texas, she can, at the cost of a last effort, finish her flight on a piece of paradise.