Caroline Garcia confirmed her superb season by qualifying for the semi-finals of the WTA Masters

At the end of the effort, Caroline Garcia defeated 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7/5) the Russian Daria Kasatkina, Saturday November 5 in Fort Worth, in the south of the United States, to offer the WTA The Masters semi-final will be reached on Sunday against the Greek Maria Sakkari. He will face a better-ranked opponent (fifth in the world), who looks formidable this week, but who he has beaten twice in as many encounters.

So here she is more than two victories from becoming the second Frenchwoman to add her name to the winners of this event, after Amélie Mauresmo, who was crowned at the expense of Mary Pierce in 2005, in a 100% tricolor final in another time. .

Meanwhile, he’s savoring his success, earned as much thanks to his persistence as his offensive game. “It’s a crazy game. I had to give everything to win it, stay positive until the end. Daria is very competitive, I’m glad to be like her tonight.”he said it was hot on the court, after 2:30 of a fierce battle in the eighth world.

“I tried to play aggressively, even though he is probably the best defensive player in the world. We had a very opposing game, which resulted in some good rallies”he added.

Constant aggressiveness

Moments before the famous hit “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond, Garcia fell to his knees in joy, but more than anything, relief, when he saw this ball that Kasatkina had caught die in the net. The outcome is therefore happy, but it may not be as well. And then, he deeply regretted these six wasted break points at 4-4 in the third set, after thirteen minutes of the ninth game.

Before, the French managed to get back into the match, devouring the second set in an authoritarian manner, after losing the first in which he led 4-2. An impressive performance in itself, because when Kasatkina takes the first round, she always wins. So the Russian has won twenty-eight matches in which he has the best start this year. But not the twenty-ninth.

Garcia delivered an imperfect match, far from it. Witness his more unforced errors (forty-eight) than his winning shots (forty-two), but his permanent aggressiveness backfired on him. Like his belief in his game. With this victory, it is necessary to hope to continue his journey in this competition, thereby ensuring that he will finish second in the Tracey Austin group, behind the untouchable Iga Swiatek, the best player in the world, which is against the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in the other half.

An extraordinary season

For “Caro”, this course is already a pleasure after six difficult last weeks, victim of a phenomenon of decompensation after a brilliant summer, which saw him win three titles (Bad Homburg, Warsaw, Cincinnati), before reaching in the semifinals at the US Open. It’s enough to go from seventy-fifth to sixth place in the world in a few months, and invite yourself to the Masters.

A rebirth, after more than four lackluster years, between a crisis of confidence, anxiety tennis and repeated physical worries, which he managed to overcome this year, in an amazing way , thanks to his work done with coach Bertrand Perret, key to his success.

However, in mid-October, after the elimination in the second round of the Guadalajara tournament, the latter decided to end eleven months of a fruitful collaboration, citing without specifying the nature of the problems that had arisen in recent weeks . . A decision that surprised Garcia, arriving in Fort Worth amid uncertainty. Helped for the occasion by Argentinian coach Juan Pablo Guzman, who he had worked with last year, however, he regained the momentum at the best of times.

That he will have to maintain this Sunday against Sakkari, also back in the semi-finals, a year later.