The successful performance by the 28-year-old Frenchwoman in Ohio is to mark in the history of tennis, since she is the first player to win a WTA 1000, coming from the qualifications. 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.
Eight matches and as many victories in nine days at “Cincy”, which make 27 in total since June. No one can say the same, currently, on the circuit.
Because Garcia, who was 79th in May and will be 17th on Monday, won the bet on the grass of Bad Homburg and on the clay of Warsaw, where she offered herself the scalp of the N. 1 Polish world Iga Swiatek.
This spectacular progression is the result of a velvet revolution, both in terms of play, physicality and mentality, operated this year by the Frenchwoman, who has seemed in perdition in recent years, weighed down by injuries (back, foot ) and waning confidence.
– “Everything is clearer” –
“Everything is clearer in my head”, she confided, after her triumph at the expense of the Czech Petra Kvitova, who described her as the “Girl on Fire” (girl on fire), in reference to the tube by Alicia Keys.
“I feel a lot better physically, healthier. 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 I have to practice,” she explained.
Garcia 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 risk-taking by taking the ball very early, was in fact … the right one.
It was this game that made him rise to 4th place in the world in 2018, a year after two first coronations in the WTA 1000, in Wuhan and Beijing.
“French technique”, she half-joked on Saturday after her victory in the semi-final against the American Jessica Pegula, in response to a journalist asking her “where did she” come from “playing like that”.
– The ace of aces –
“That’s how I learned to play actually. I had my doubts, because it didn’t always work. But you also have to try to forget what people say, but it always happens to your ears one way or another, and sometimes from famous people… So it affects you. The road has not been straight,” she agreed.
“But by playing this style of game, by winning matches, this title here … If I still had doubts, it proves to me more than anything that this is the right way to go”, immediately completed the one who strove to broaden her palette, improving her volley and especially her first serve.
Proof if any, she has slammed 286 aces since the start of the year, making her the leader of the ranking in this exercise.
An additional asset, which makes Garcia a more offensive player than ever, ready to meet expectations at the US Open, where the boiling New York public, so fond of the showman Gaël Monfils, who will be absent for injury, could be passionate for “Sweet Caroline”.
With the possibility of hearing the famous tube of New York singer Neil Diamond, which has become a stadium anthem, taken up in chorus on the side of Flushing Meadows in a week.
