Caroline Garcia fell from her pedestal: the outgoing US Open semi-finalist was largely dominated in the first round on Tuesday when Arthur Fils, on the contrary, won his first match in a Grand Slam tournament and Gaël Monfils succeeded his return to New York.
Arthur Cazaux having been drafted after the withdrawal of the Finn Emil Ruusuvuori, there were 12 Habs in contention on Tuesday and four qualified (Gaël Monfils, Arthur Fils, Arthur Rinderknech and Clara Burel).
With the four qualified on Monday (Adrian Mannarino, Titouan Droguet, Benjamin Bonzi and Hugo Gaston), there will only be eight French people (seven in the men’s draw and one in the women’s) in the second round, out of the 28 in the running.
Monfils, who returns to competition after months of nursing injuries, took a set to enter the match before dominating the Japanese Taro Daniel (95th and from qualifying) 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (7/4).
Apathetic in the first set, he then woke up – and woke up the public willingly won over to his cause -, made fewer mistakes and took the game into his own hands.
In the end, he will have placed 23 aces, managed 68 winning moves and committed 56 unforced errors (10 winning moves for 13 unforced errors in the first set).
The next step will be much higher since the Parisian who will celebrate his 37th birthday on September 1 will find the Russian Andrey Rublev (8th).
Nice first for Son: at 19, the 48th in the world beat the Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor (24th) 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 to finally discover a second round in a tournament of the Grand Slam.
Great hope of tricolor tennis, he had failed as soon as he entered the running at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon this year for his first two Majors.
He will face the Italian Matteo Arnaldi (61st) in the next round.
Previously, Arthur Rinderknech easily qualified at the expense of Argentinian Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
To go further, he will have to dismiss the Italian Matteo Berrettini (36th) on Thursday.
The only qualification of the day in the women’s table is the work of Clara Burel (62nd) who quietly dismissed the American Caroline Dolehide (106th) 6-4, 6-3.
She will try to do as well as in 2022 when she reached the third round, facing the Czech Karolina Pliskova (25th), who remains in two quarter-finals in 2021 and 2022 and who had reached the final in 2016.
The few hopes were quickly dashed: in lack of confidence, Garcia, 7th in the world and semi-finalist last year, did not weigh heavily against the Chinese Yafan Wang (114th, from qualifications) who beat her 6-4, 6-1 in 1h10.
She did not appear at the press conference.
Her premature defeat is a blow for the French clan of which she was the best chance. On paper at least, because since the start of the season, the 29-year-old Lyonnaise has not been able to regain her level of last year.
After an explosive American summer in 2022 (title at the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati then half at Flushing Meadows, her first Grand Slam), she had won the Masters at the end of the year in Fort Worth (Texas) and had risen to 4th place in the world .
On Tuesday, Garcia committed too many unforced errors (34) to worry her opponent to whom she offered the match on a sixth double fault.
The French N.1 thus ends her Grand Slam season with her worst result, in the Major where she had nevertheless achieved her best performance last year.
In 2023, Garcia lost in the round of 16 at the Australian Open, in the second round at Roland-Garros and in the third at Wimbledon.
Diane Parry (88th) was eliminated by Briton Katie Boulter (61st), 6-4, 6-0 and Elsa Jacquemot yielded to Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko 7-5, 3-6, 6-1.
Among the men, the other great hope of French tennis, Luca Van Assche (64th), was beaten by the Chilean Nicolas Jarry (25th) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3 ).
Exit, also, the N.1 tricolor Ugo Humbert, helpless against the power of Matteo Berrettini, winner 6-4, 6-2, 6-2.
Constant Lestienne (101st) also surrendered, against the German Daniel Altmeier (53rd) 6-7 (5/7), 6-3, 6-1, 6-2.
Corentin Moutet (72nd) lost to Andy Murray (37th) 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 and Arthur Cazaux (119th) to Andrey Rublev (8th) 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) , 6-1.
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