Ah, you shouldn’t piss her off, Caroline Garcia. And especially not in front of his public, in Lyon. Jostled by the Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck, Garcia had his back against the wall in the third set of this quarter-final of the Open 6th Sens. Broken and led 3-1, she simply had no room for error. And the public, finally at the rendezvous, felt it. Feeling the child of the country in danger, the Lyonnais transformed the match into a Fed Cup meeting (sorry, Billie Jean Cup) by making the Palais des Sports resonate like never before this week. ” You’re at home ! » and other “Caro, we love you! » descended from the stands probably helped the Frenchwoman to come out of her torpor and to transform herself into a veritable war machine.
Garcia finds the rage to win
Because until now, Garcia suffered from the metronomic regularity of Van Uytvanck who gave very little and took everything possible. The first set was played on a single break. Garcia had saved three set points on her serve, the Belgian was quick to conclude on her commitment. And it was she who put the pressure at the start of the second set by forcing Garcia to save four break points from her second service game.
Goaded, the Lyonnaise was violent and delighted the opposing service in stride. She was going to keep this advantage until the end to equalize at one set everywhere. Back to Van Uytvanck’s break in the third set. From that moment, Garcia was transformed. From now on, there is no question of suffering. Aggressiveness is in the DNA of her tennis, but she had decided to give it a layer. Led 4-1 after confirmation of the break by Van Uytvack, Garcia lined up three games full of authority to return to 4-4. Forget the quick faults, this time it was the winning points that were linked. In return, she did wonders with supersonic bullets that her opponent could not control, who seemed disillusioned by this return from nowhere. The game was tense, the public in madness. Garcia broke at the best moment to lead 6-5. Van Uytvanck’s last setback, into the net, allowed Garcia and his fans to explode into a single howl of happiness. Garcia is in the semi-finals of a WTA 250, this had not happened to him since the Lausanne Open in July 2021.
