WTA 1000 TORONTO – “On peut tout espérer” : Caroline Garcia retrouve (enfin) de sa superbe avec l’US Open en vue

To understand this renaissance on the part of Caroline Garcia, you have to go back to the end of June. The Habs then won the Bad Homburg tournament, their first title since June 2019, almost three years. And from there was launched an intoxicating dynamic carrying her to her dream week in Polish lands. “If you look at her most recent results and how she gets them, she’s not far off playing as well as when she was in the top 10 in the world,” judges our consultant Jean-Paul Loth.

Continuity and vigilance

In terms of confidence, it is therefore difficult to do better. “Two titles in the season, and still, she’s not finished, it’s beautiful. I’m delighted for herabounds his trainer in Billie Jean King Cup Julien Benneteau, in an interview with The team. Glad she managed to overcome her physical glitches, that she managed to build a clear gaming identity, as she wanted. There is no secret, she surrounded herself well. Last year, she looked for solutions. She took on a coach, Bertrand Perret, who is with her every day, both in tournaments and during training, to help her progress.”

Jean-Paul Loth completes: “She has a structure around her with a trainer, a physical trainer, who follows her, who represents an important mental and moral foundation for her. When she was simply clinging to her father, she had emotions that she suffered which were not easily rectified by anyone, especially someone in the family.”

Great promises before the US Open

Launched on perfect track before the North American tour which will take her to the US Open, Caroline Garcia can harbor real ambitions. “We can hope for everything!”, advances the former captain of the France Davis Cup team. However, he warns: “With a hiatus… Not necessarily in Toronto, but when you’ve just gotten the result she’s just gotten, you can still mentally prepare to lose a game. It’s going to be less obvious at the US Open because you’re going to really waiting for her. For her US Open to be a successful tournament, it would be better if she did not lose in the first round of the Masters 1000 which is coming.”

Julien Benneteau is more serene about his player’s abilities: “Her game is working well on grass, it has worked well on clay and I see no reason why it shouldn’t work on hard court on the US tour. And with her new ranking (32nd) she has a good chance to to be seeded at the US Open, so everything is going well”.

Whatever happens, Caroline Garcia will have things to prove at Flushing Meadows. So far, the Frenchwoman has never managed to pass the round of 16 at the American Grand Slam. “In the US, she’s going to want not to miss herself, to prove that she’s come back, that she has what it takes to be among the best players in the world. She has reached a degree of serenity, it seems to me. And if it is a reality, it will help him a lot”assures Jean-Paul Loth. She will face Alizé Cornet for her entry into the running in Toronto on Monday.

In any case, the age of reason arrives for Bertrand Perret’s protege. Like Stan Wawrinka, who won his first Grand Slam tournament at 29, Caroline Garcia can still write the most beautiful pages of her career. “She’s 28, that’s when a player knows she can still achieve great things but also knows it’s not the end of the world if she doesn’t.confirms the former player. Wawrinka was like ‘now all I can do is more’, so he had less pressure and it worked. It could very well be the same for Caroline.” Nine years later, Marion Bartoli is still waiting for a successor.