After her recent resurgence on the Tour, Caroline Garcia received a brutal reminder that she still has areas of her game to improve on after missing out on a place in the US Open final.
Garcia, who has been ranked as high as fourth in the world, entered Flushing Meadows having won 13 out of her past 14 matches played. Claiming titles at the Poland Open and Cincinnati. During that period she defeated an array of top names that included Maria Sakkari, Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, and Jessica Pegula. Her only defeat was to Alize Cornet in Canada which took place between her two title wins.
The Frenchwoman continued her recent run of wins in New York by streaming rolling her way into the semi-finals without dropping a set. Taking to the Arthur Ashe stadium on Thursday, she locked horns with her ole for Ons Jabeur. Somebody who she first played against on the junior Tour and is yet to defeat. Their latest encounter turned out to be a mainly one-way encounter with Jabeur triumphing 6-1, 6-3, in just over an hour.
“Obviously nerves were there. I think it’s pretty normal. When I started the tournament in my first round, I was already stressed out. Every match means a lot, you want to win every one of them,” Garcia told reporters afterwards.
“I knew it was the semifinals, so you know what it’s bringing you if you win and what you want to achieve. It’s a dream since I’m a little girl.’
“At the beginning of the match, it was not great. I made a few mistakes on important points. The arms and the legs were not moving as great. Obviously for my game, if I’m a little bit slower or if I don’t go for my shot, mistakes can come very quickly.”
Garcia’s unforced error count was almost two times more than the number of winners she produced (23-12) and she won just 48% of her first service points. In the opening set, she was broken three times and then once again in the second.
“Today didn’t work. It shows me that I can still improve a lot. It did bring me a lot of wins the last couple of weeks, I think 13 against 1, I will keep going.” She said.
Despite her defeat, the 28-year-old can take some consultation in the fact she will return to the world’s top 10 next week for the first time in almost four years. She would have been ranked as high as fourth if she had won the US Open.
“There is still a lot of positives to take: semifinal here (at the US Open) and a big jump in the rankings,” she said.
“Tomorrow we (my team) will try to learn the most we can about this match because I’m sure there are a lot of things I can learn and give me hope for the future.”
As of today, Garcia has won 38 matches on the Tour this season which is the fourth-highest tally among female players. Only Iga Swiatek, Ons Jabeur and Simona Halep have won more.
