Garcia bows and ends the season 20th in the world

Caroline Garcia’s WTA season ended this Friday. Forced to beat Beatriz Haddad Maia in her last group match of the Masters bis in Zhuhai to reach the semi-finals of this tournament reserved for the twelve best players not qualified for the Masters, the Frenchwoman was dominated in two sets by the Brazilian and said so goodbye to any hope of winning a trophy on the circuit this year. Faced with this player ranked one rank ahead of her (19th against 20th), whom she faced for the first time, the Lyonnaise completely missed the start of the match, before recovering, but that was not enough, and she finally lost 6-1, 7-6 in 1h39. Caroline Garcia, who won her first match against Madison Keys, hoped to do as well against the Brazilian left-hander, in difficult weather conditions (81% humidity). But her start to the match looked like a nightmare: she lost the first 14 points of the match! At 0-3 0-30, the Lyonnaise screamed “I’m going to freak out!” » after another forehand into the net, and she finally won her first point in the process. This did not prevent Haddad Maia from signing another break, and winning the set 6-1.

Direction Seville for Garcia

But there was improvement at the end of the first set from the French n°1, and this was confirmed at the start of the second. She held her service games perfectly (7 aces in this set, but also 5 double faults), just like the Brazilian, and the two players found themselves at 4-4. It was at that moment that Garcia broke down, on his opponent’s fourth break point, and we thought the match was over. But while Haddad Maia had not had a single break point to defend until then, the Lyonnaise broke it with a shutout! So there was still hope, and Garcia also pushed his opponent to play a tie-break, after having saved four more break points at 5-5. In the deciding game, Haddad Maia started strong, leading 4-1, then concluded on her second match point. It is therefore the 19th in the world who will see the semi-finals (just like Daria Kasatkina, who qualified on Thursday). As for Caroline Garcia, she is now guaranteed to finish the season in 20th place in the world, even though she started it in 4th. A big disappointment for the winner of the 2022 Masters, who will not have won a single tournament this year, and lost two finals of low-level tournaments, in Lyon (against Alycia Parks) and in Monterrey (against Donna Vekic). The Lyonnaise, just 30 years old, arrived in Asia a month ago, will now return to Europe, where the final phase of the Billie Jean King Cup with the French team awaits her, from November 7 to 12 in Seville. . The opportunity to smile again?