After committing a crime of lèse-majesté, Caroline Garcia could only be crowned… Fallen by the Polish world n° 1 Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals of “her” Warsaw tournament, the Frenchwoman easily won this Sunday (6-4, 6-1 in 1h20) against the Romanian Bogdan (108th in the WTA), who reached a final on the circuit for the first time.
Very aggressive in return on local clay, made heavy by the rain, the Lyonnaise quickly broke away 3-0 before Bogdan finally entered the game. After missing the opportunity to conclude the first set on his serve at 5-3, Garcia took advantage of yet another cannon return to force his opponent to make a mistake and take the lead.
In the second set, the Habs, imperial, managed a new break at 2-1. Before rolling out with total power and confidence…
“Fly with Caro” has definitely taken off again. Since the Bad Homburg tournament, won at the end of June after almost three years of scarcity, Garcia has won 18 out of 21 matches. On the strength of her 9th title, the winner of the last Roland-Garros doubles with Mladenovic will move up into the top 40 and delight the place of No. 1 tricolor to Alizé Cornet. Confirming his rebirth at 28 years old.
In September 2018, the one to whom Andy Murray had predicted the first world rank eleven years ago was in 4th place. And then nothing. Or almost. A slow descent into hell… In June 2021, the young woman decides to separate from her omnipresent coach father to fly on her own. She first tried to take off again with the help of the Spaniard Gabriel Urpi, former coach of the French Fed Cup team before calling on Bertrand Perret at the end of the year, who notably worked with Paul-Henri Mathieu, Ons Jabeur, finalist of the last Wimbledon and the Chinese Peng Shuai.
“It hasn’t been too easy for a year and a half,” she explained at Wimbledon after beating Emma Raducanu. The physique no longer followed too much. In November and December, we really took the time to do things well, to surround ourselves well, to emphasize that because being 100% physically allows me to impose my game, to be more dynamic. It’s nice to see that it pays off, it gives confidence in the chosen path…”