To date, only two Frenchmen have won the US Open: the Musketeers René Lacoste (1926, 1927) and Henri Cochet (1928), at a time that even Michel Drucker did not know. No Tricolore has yet signed this feat, while the last Grand Slam victory of one of our representatives dates back to the success of Marion Bartoli at Wimbledon 2013. Suffice to say that the rest of this article may seem a bit cheeky, especially if we remember that last year, no Frenchman had been able to pass the third round in New York…
And yet, Caroline Garcia will advance from next Monday with a beautiful “favorite-outsider” sign on her back, after her summer of fire, crowned by her victory at the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati on Sunday. Here are the reasons (non-contractual) to believe in the now 17th in the world, guaranteed to be seeded at the US Open.
Because she is the best player of the moment
When the 28-year-old Lyonnaise won the grass tournament in Bad Homburg, Germany, at the end of June, the former fourth in the world ended a three-year drought. Since then, the one who was only 79th in the WTA ranking before her resurrection, is simply unstoppable. She has accumulated 26 victories on the circuit since June – more than any other player – and has won the tournaments in Warsaw, on clay, and, above all, therefore, that of Cincinnati on hard courts.
In Ohio, “Caro” became the first woman to win a WTA 1,000 (the level just below the Grand Slam) after qualifying, after having experienced a delicate comeback on this surface which is also that of the US Open (defeat against Alizé Cornet to enter Toronto).
“There is a song called The girl is on fire, that’s it ? dropped Petra Kvitova, victim of the French in the final. That’s the best way to describe it. It is even rumored that Alicia Keys is preparing a special version of girl on fire (the exact title) in the event of victory for the Lyonnaise in New York.
Because the hierarchy remains vague
It was thought that Iga Swiatek would take up the torch left by Ashleigh Barty after the Australian’s surprise retirement in March, while Serena Williams has long been a shadow of her former self and Naomi’s level. Osaka remains a mystery. However, the Polish woman with 37 victories in a row at the start of the year, an impressive winner of Roland-Garros, has been in trouble for a few weeks.
In Cincinnati, she bent the saplings in the round of 16 against Madison Keys. Previously, she had been beaten at home in Warsaw, and on clay please, by the inevitable Caro Garcia, who also topped at “Cincy” three residents of the Top 10: Sakkari (3rd), Pegula (8th ) and Sabalenka (7th). If we also look at the top of the hierarchy, no girl gives big guarantees of reliability, starting with Kontaveit, the not particularly flamboyant runner-up to Swiatek.
Like Badosa (5th), the Pole complained about the balls used at the US Open, deeming them “horrible” and “very difficult to control”. It does not smell of great serenity.
Because she has style
Caroline Garcia has always chosen the offensive solution. But this high-risk style requires rock-solid physique and confidence, for a cinderblock to end up in the court (or in a pinch on the line) rather than out. However, this has not been the case for the Frenchwoman for a long time, bothered by various injuries. “I feel much better physically, in better health,” dropped the summer hit after its success over Kvitova on Sunday.
“Everything is clearer in my head,” she added, while she admits to having sometimes found it difficult to ignore the criticisms that accompanied the results at half mast. “We have clearly defined the way I have to play and the direction I have to take. When I enter the court, I know what style of game I have to practice. »
Since the end of last year, the Lyonnaise, long managed by her father, has been trained by Bertrand Perret, who had previously officiated notably with Paul-Henri Mathieu and the Tunisian Ons Jabeur. She is also accompanied by her physical trainer Laura Legoupil. Very sharp, “Boom Boom” Caro hits just as hard, especially on serve. In 2022, she has already hit 286 aces. A record, once again.
Because she has experience
“I’ve had high tides and low tides like you, like you, like you. We do not know if Caroline Garcia likes Patrick Bruel but these few words of the heady Square of Great Men suit him perfectly. From an early age, she had to carry heavy expectations, further accentuated by the famous tweet from Andy Murray, who predicted her in 2011 (she was 17 years old) the place of world No. 1, after what we still called an “encouraging defeat” against Maria Sharapova at Roland-Garros.
We thought her time had come in 2017, when she won the WTA 1000 in Wuhan and Beijing in turn, before reaching the semi-finals of the Masters in Singapore. And then wreckage… But Garcia can still display a record and an experience that a lot of colleagues envy him, with his 29 successes on the circuit in singles, the 2019 Fed Cup and his two Roland-Garros in doubles with Kiki Mladenovic, the last last spring. “The road was not straight”, “raffarine” the Lyonnaise, who will (already) celebrate her 29th birthday on October 16. It’s time to take the right turn in Grand Slam, where she never did better than a quarter-final, at Roland-Garros, in 2017.
Because anything is possible in New York
Granted, Garcia has never been able to get higher than the third round at the US Open in 11 singles appearances. Yes, she lost her flag in the second match last year against Kazakh Elena Rybakina, who has since won Wimbledon. So what ? The women’s circuit has known for several years the era of possibilities.
Last year, after Czech Barbora Krejcikova’s unexpected coronation at Roland, the almost unknown English Emma Raducanu came out of qualifying to win all her matches in straight sets, including the final against Canadian Leylah Fernandez, another surprise guest. . A feat never before seen in Grand Slam, therefore reproduced last week by Garcia, in WTA 1,000.
The flamboyant style of the Frenchwoman has everything to conquer the warm New York public. And if, despite all the solid arguments deployed in this article, the magic does not work? Well, it won’t be so bad after all. “I’m going to lose games, that’s obvious, but I can recover if I gave myself 100%, if my attitude was good,” prophesied “Caro” after his success in Cincinnati. But hey, if the inevitable defeat to come could wait a few more weeks.