Since the start of her week in Lyon, Caroline Garcia had often shown two faces during her matches. At the start of the match, we regularly saw the player who was too impatient and offered a lot of points to her opponents by making a mistake too quickly. Fortunately, she also showed a more radiant, more daring and more inspired side which enabled her twice to turn a situation to her advantage.
Unfortunately, against Shuai Zhang, we didn’t see Doctor Jekyll, only Mr. Hyde. From the first game of this quarter-final, Garcia showed that she was not in the best of moods. No first serves, unforced errors and a double fault to concede the break. Against an opponent who didn’t do much but did it well, Garcia scuttled herself a bit. His backhand cost him too many points and Zhang didn’t need to push his skills, just keep up the pace, to bag the first set in just 36 minutes.
Cirstea ou Yastremska in finale
The public at the Sports Palace was stunned. He who was happy to support the child of the country had nothing to ignite. The second set, as encouraging as it was frustrating, was going to give him opportunities to give voice, because Garcia had chances there, in particular two break points from Zhang’s first service game. Above all, she was more solid in the hot moments, like this endless game at 3-1 against her where she saved four break points with panache.
Garcia also showed that she could allow herself more room in her shots and not systematically aim for the lines. In this case, Zhang showed cracks in his game and Garcia should have been able to exploit them, as during this white break which allowed him to come back to 3-3. Alas, she did not review her tactics so far and fell back into her ways. Zhang took the opportunity to slip into the final and wait who will face her, Sorana Cirstea, seeded n°2, or Dayana Yastremska.
