Maria Sharapova suffered her fourth straight loss on the WTA tour as Caroline Garcia produced a stirring comeback to beat the Russian 3-6 7-6(6) 6-4 in Stuttgart.
Defeat in the first round means Sharapova will drop outside the World’s Top 50 after she reached Roberta Vinci, Ekaterina Makarova and Anett Kontaveit en route to the semi-final in 2017.
It was a strange loss, too, as the Russian won more points than Garcia (109 to 104), hit more winners (39 to 25) and more aces (17 to 6) but somehow ended up on the wrong side of the scoreline.
Ultimately it came down to who played the big points better. And although this is an area Sharapova historically excels in, today it was the Frenchwoman who stepped up and produced her best when it really mattered.
The two-time French Open champion served superbly in the opening set. She lost just five points during five of the most comfortable holds of her career and got the solitary break she needed in the second game.
Garcia responds superbly
Garcia made sure the second set was entirely different. She attacked Sharapova’s second serve and went toe-to-toe with the Russian throughout.
The Frenchwoman broke to lead 4-2, but the former World No.1 hit back straight away and almost won three games in a row. However, Garcia expertly saved two break points in game nine.
Perhaps inevitably, this very close set was decided by a tie-break. And the World No.7 looked set to win it comfortably when she raced into a 6-3 lead.
Sharapova then fought back to 6-all and sensed a chance to seal a straight-sets victory. But Garcia snuffed out her hopes with a big serve and a precise backhand winner to take it 8-6.
The decider was also close and it was still hard to predict what would happen at 4-all. The Frenchwoman stepped up and provided the answer by punishing some weak serving from the Russian. After securing the break, she clung on to her serve to seal the win.
Garcia delighted to win
It was Garcia’s first-ever victory over Sharapova and she celebrated gleefully. She lost to the Russian at the French Open in 2011, Doha in 2013, Brisbane in 2014 and Madrid in 2015.
“It was a very close match, as I expected,” said Garcia in her on-court interview. “I know she’s a fighter, so until the end it will be very difficult.”
“I was a little bit more aggressive today and I returned a little bit better and finally I can say, after seven years, that I beat her.”
Garcia believes her consistency helped her win today. She said, “Sometimes you react to the ball when it comes fast and you hit harder but sometimes you have to think a little bit more and play with more accuracy and that’s what I did well in the last couple of games.”
The Frenchwoman was asked what it was like playing Sharapova for the first time at Roland Garros in 2011 when she was just 17.
She said, “She really plays every single point 100%. So even when I was up, I got a bit stressed. It was my first match on a big court and she had the experience with her, so then I didn’t win any more games. It was not a very good experience for me, so it’s definitely a very important win today.”
Goerges stunned by Vondrousova
Julia Goerges produced one of her worst performances of 2018 as she was hammered 6-2 6-2 by World No.73 Marketa Vondrousova.
In front of an increasingly stunned home crowd, the German seemed unable to defend her second serve and failed to earn a break point in the match.
This enabled talented youngster Vondrousova, 18, to break Goerges twice in each set and wrap up a remarkably simple victory in just 68 minutes. She will play Elina Svitolina in round two.
