Caroline Garcia knows how it can feel to be a teen in tennis getting a ton of attention and outsized expectations, the way Coco Gauff does now.
One big difference: Garcia, now 28, became an overnight
sensation more than a decade ago thanks to one particularly noteworthy
performance on a big stage — and long before she achieved the sorts of things
Gauff has at 18.
On Tuesday night at the U.S. Open, Garcia took charge and
never really let Gauff — or the crowd — get fully involved. From the get-go,
Garcia played high-stakes tennis and put strokes where she wanted, sometimes
right at Gauff’s feet, sometimes well out of reach, and reached the first Grand
Slam semifinal of her career with a 6-3, 6-4 victory at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“It kind of got away from me,” said the 12th-seeded Gauff,
an American who reached the French Open final in June. “It was all her. ... I
was striking the ball really clean. You’re playing someone, off the bat,
they’re standing on top of the baseline and ripping balls. It’s not easy. ”
Garcia, who is from France, hasn’t ceded a set at Flushing
Meadows so far this year and stretched her winning streak to 13 matches
overall, solidifying her status as someone playing as well as anyone in women’s
tennis at the moment.
“The path is very clear right now,” Garcia said. “Which
direction I have to go, under stress, under pressure. I’m just trying to follow
this path.”
Back in 2011, still just 17 and ranked 188th, playing in
only her second tour-level event, Garcia led Maria Sharapova — who had won
three of her five Grand Slam titles by then — 6-3, 4-1 in the second round at
Roland Garros. Sharapova wound up taking the last 11 games to win, but Garcia
was suddenly on the map.
Sharapova praised her as someone “on her way way up,
definitely,” and Andy Murray wrote on Twitter that day: “Girl sharapova is
playing is going to be No.1 in world one day caroline garcia, what a player u
heard it here 1st.”
Asked recently about that, Garcia laughed and said she’s
never talked to Murray about it.
“I was very surprised because, in the end, I still lost the
match. But it was a funny moment. ... I was pretty much nobody at the time. I’m
not going to complain about it, but I was definitely not ready. More
importantly, my game was not ready for it,” Garcia said. “I was not able to
(play) the same, match after match or week after week. I was trying to manage
the pressure that came from it.”
She did get to No. 4 in the rankings in 2018, but finished
last season ranked 74th. Now she is projected to rise into the top 10 next week
and will face Wimbledon runner-up Ons Jabeur of Tunisia on Thursday with a
berth in the U.S. Open final at stake.
Jabeur advanced to her first semifinal in New York with a
6-4, 7-6 (4) victory over the player who beat Serena Williams in the third
round, Ajla Tomljanovic.
In the men’s quarterfinals Tuesday, No. 5 Casper Ruud beat
No. 13 Matteo Berrettini in straight sets and will play No. 27 Karen Khachanov,
who eliminated No. 23 Nick Kyrgios 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-4 in a match that
finished at about 1 a.m.
In Garcia vs. Gauff, it was 4-0 merely 17 minutes in, as
spectators were still filing in. All in all, there was less-vociferous support
for Gauff than she heard in her previous victory in Ashe.
During that pretty perfect start, Garcia capped one
17-stroke exchange with a down-the-line forehand winner. She raised her fist
and held that pose while looking at her guest box, where her father and coach
were on their feet. It was a sequence that would be repeated.
Garcia stood right near the baseline, or inside it, and read
Gauff’s serves effectively. Garcia often returned deep enough to seemingly
startle Gauff, who rushed some responses. After one of several attempted
replies by Gauff settled in the net, she jutted her racket toward the ground,
as if to indicate: “Why do these keep landing right there?!”
Gauff ended up double-faulting six times and finished with
24 unforced errors.
Taking balls early off the bounce, Garcia gained the upper
hand from the baseline with her crisp strokes. During a brief TV interview on
the way from the locker room to the court, Garcia said she hoped to be “more
aggressive.”
She certainly was.
With her volleying expertise — she has won two Grand Slam
doubles titles with French partner Kristina Mladenovic — Garcia moved forward
whenever an opening presented itself. She wound up winning 13 of 16 points when
she went to the net.
Gauff occasionally would show a bit of frustration at her
play, slapping herself on the thigh or knocking her racket on a courtside towel
holder.
She was trying to become the youngest American woman in the
U.S. Open semifinals since Serena Williams was 17 when she won her first Grand
Slam title in New York in 1999.
Garcia would not allow it.
“Overall I’m super proud of myself ... but I’m hungry for
more,” Gauff said with a smile. “So maybe next year.” -AP
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