US OPEN – The end of the dream: Caroline Garcia swept away in the semi-final by Ons Jabeur

A terrible disappointment, up to the immense expectations raised by her formidable career… For her first Grand Slam semi-final, Caroline Garcia lived a real nightmare last night, literally outclassed by Ons Jabeur by completely missing her part, unlike the Tunisian who gave an extremely solid performance but who, to tell the truth, did not have to force her talent to win 6-1, 6-3 in 1h06. After Wimbledon this summer, Jabeur thus qualifies for a new Grand Slam final and will try to win his first major title on Saturday against Iga Swiatek or Aryna Sabalenka.

A shipwreck, there is no other word. Where had the sparkling and conquering Caroline Garcia gone in recent weeks, the hurricane that had devastated everything in its path since the start of its New York campaign and no longer even left its opponents the right to express themselves? This night, it was not that one which was on the stadium Arthur-Ashe. It wasn’t even his shadow. Hardly his ghost.

Showing nervousness for his first Grand Slam semi-final is quite logical. But there, it was still well beyond that. From the first strokes of the racket, the Frenchwoman seemed trapped in a heavy lead screed, like this initial service game lost (after leading 30-0) by chaining four big faults, including a volley of kicks. “sloppy” right into the net. And in subsequent games, it was even worse.

Caroline, who had not yet lost a single set of the tournament, took only 23 minutes to concede the first set, 6 games to 1. She chained fault after fault (23 in total), often the same ones, with “predilection” for the backhand in the net or the forehand in the corridor. The worst is that Jabeur, in the first moments of the match, did not seem unplayable either. But faced with the decline of the opponent, she quickly gained confidence and began to drive the point home, driven in particular by an irreproachable quality of service (8 aces, and many more winning services).

This is to say, moreover: Caroline did not obtain the slightest break point of the match. She tied several times in the second set, when, trailing 6-1, 4-1, she tried to come out of her torpor and finally lay the foundations of her formidable offensive game. From then on, it was a little better, it’s true. But it was too late. Much too late.

Her last hope came at 5-3 when she made it 30-30 on Jabeur’s serve for the match. But the Tunisian, very authoritarian, closed the door to her by chaining a good sliced ​​serve with a well-placed winning forehand. As a symbol, on the match point, “Caro” sent a forehand into the net. Yet another. The one too many.

Don’t throw any more. Of match, to tell the truth, there was not really one. We could praise here, once again, the variations of the Tunisian, her jewel of sliced ​​backhand, her forehand always played very early and very fair, as well as her quality of service which we have already spoken about, and say that she thus “demolished” the game of Caroline Garcia as she had been able to do during their first six confrontations (including four in juniors). But that would almost be talking to say nothing.

A return to the top 10 as a consolation prize

Notwithstanding the formidable qualities of her opponent, who will make her (deserved) return to 2nd place in the world, the truth is above all that Caroline Garcia first fought on her own. No doubt because of extreme tension, perhaps also a certain state of fatigue, or other reasons that she will soon explain. In short: the raw observation is that she will not become, on Saturday, the second French woman to play in the final of the US Open after Mary Pierce (in 2005), whom we saw, in an image of course fortuitous but so cruel , yawn in the stands.

None of this takes anything away, of course, from the formidable career of Caroline Garcia, who will make her big comeback in the top 10 on Monday. And it will be time, very quickly, to come back to the extremely positive nature of her murderous summer, before turning greedily to follow. But in the meantime, when hot, we all have this painful feeling of having fallen out of bed in the middle of a dream. And hitting his head hard.