She fought, even if not much worked, and was not far from a hold-up, but Caroline Garcia ended up giving in against the Romanian Sorana Cirstea, Tuesday evening, in the 8th finals of Indian Wells. The French (5th in the world), not far from being dispatched in two sets, thought she could reverse the situation with a second set snatched from a hard fight, but the final defeat is all in all logical (6-4, 4-6, 7 -5 in 2h23).
Constantly reacting
“It was a difficult match, I didn’t have good feelings, I couldn’t find my rhythm, I didn’t adapt to the conditions, nor to what they offered me, declared the winner of the Masters at the end of last year. There are days like this when things go less well. You have to try to find solutions, to keep fighting, to stay positive, that’s what I tried to do… But it’s difficult after so much effort, to have almost changed the game, to finally lose it. »
Faced with an opponent whom she had however beaten twice in as many confrontations, the 29-year-old Lyonnaise was constantly in reaction and not in action, most of the time suffering the aggressiveness of Cirstea. “She passed me very well every time I went to the net, I felt like I was serving as a target,” blew Garcia, who indeed tried to also go forward to force things.
But that wasn’t enough. “There are days when you see things clearly, when you manage to concentrate, when you have a good feeling… And there are days when you don’t. This is the life of an athlete. You have to know how to manage these moments when you are less well in order to move forward, but today, unfortunately, for a few points, it has not happened, ”she still lamented.
Garcia is struggling at the start of the year to regain the level that had been his at the US Open and the Masters. But since it is nevertheless necessary to retain a little positive, she underlines “the displayed state of mind, to find solutions with the means at hand”. “I haven’t always done it well in the past. So it will give me confidence, if I find myself in other situations like this,” she said. Next goal, Miami, next week.