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September 7, 2022
She is playing some of the best tennis of her career.
The 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu found that out the hard way.
The informative tennis source tennistonic.com posted, “Caroline Garcia soars past Bianca Vanessa Andreescu 6-3 6-2 in the 3rd round in New York on Friday after playing a terrific match to face off with Alison Riske in the 4th round. The match lasted 1 hour and 27 minutes. This will be her best achievement in this tournament.”
Best achievement indeed.
How did things go with Alison Riske?
Caroline soundly defeated her 6-4, 6-1.
The team at amny.com reported, “In truth, Alison Riske-Amritraj simply ran into a buzzsaw. The Frenchwoman has been on fire this summer, going 35-15 on the year and winning the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati prior to the US Open. In that tournament, she defeated 3rd ranked Maria Sakkari, 7th ranked Aryna Sabalenka, and 8th ranked Jessica Pegula.”
That is some pretty elite company that Caroline has recently crushed.
In the next round, America’s Coco Gauff is sizzling hot as well so her match against Caroline promised to be a huge showdown.
It wasn’t.
She soundly defeated Coco 6-3, 6-4 and was never really threatened.
Coco tried to get the American crowd involved but she could never consistently mount a sustained attack. Caroline appeared to have answers to everything and her blistering straight line ground strokes outpaced even the swift American.
At times, Coco, who is 18, was made to look very young as though the combination of Caroline’s experience and power was just at another level.
Caroline is an offensive baseliner, with consistent and powerful groundstrokes, and a strong service game.
Her forehand is her stronger asset, and she can hit many clean winners off it.
She also possesses a consistent and strong two-handed backhand.
She has a strong first and second serve, known for its accuracy.
Drum roll.
She served the ninth most aces in 2016, with 218.
Her doubles success means she also has a solid net game, although this isn’t frequently seen in her singles game since she rarely comes to net.
As we watched her, she has good movement and footwork around the court, which helps her with hitting her groundstrokes effectively.
Coco has clearly improved and promises to be a force.
Just not yet.
So, if you don’t already know her, who is Caroline Garcia?
Caroline Garcia is a French professional tennis player. She has been ranked in the top 4 in both singles and doubles.
We’re off to a great start. Very impressive.
Caroline is a two-time major champion in doubles, having won the French Open women’s doubles title in 2016 and 2022 partnering Kristina Mladenovic.
Ms. Garcia is a very successful singles player.
She has won ten WTA Tour singles titles, including three at the WTA 1000 level: the 2017 Wuhan Open, 2017 China Open and 2022 Cincinnati Open. She achieved her career-high singles ranking of world Number 4 in September of 2018, and reached the semifinals at the 2017 WTA Finals.
Caroline has represented France in the Billie Jean King Cup since 2013, and was part of the team that won the title in 2019. She won a Fed Cup Heart Award in 2016 for her role in leading France to its first final in eleven years. She has also twice competed for France at the Olympics.
To think, with all of those accomplishments, how many fans at this year’s US Open really know much about her?
Caroline entered the 2022 US Open as the 17th seed, on an eight-match winning streak dating back to the first round of qualifying in Cincinnati.
She defeated lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova, Anna Kalinskaya, 2019 champion Bianca Andreescu, and Alison Riske-Amritraj in the first four rounds to advance to the quarterfinals for the first time in her career at the US Open and the second time at a Major.
Now, after defeating Coco Gauff in the quarter finals, she has achieved a major milestone.
This will be her first Grand Slam semifinal.
As a result she increased her chances to rise back into the top 10 after the tournament.
Higher rankings means better seeding at tournaments. Stay on top while you can.
Caroline is getter closer to the top.
In terms of winning this year’s Open, who now stands in her way?
The biggest name, of course, is the world’s number one in Poland’s Iga Swiatek.
In her most recent match she struggled against Germany’s Jule Niemeier.
As posted by CNN, “Two-time grand slam champion Iga Swiatek has reached her first US Open quarterfinal in New York after escaping an upset by unseeded Jule Niemeier. But the world No. 1 came back from a shaky start to beat Niemeier 2-6 6-4 6-1.”
Simply put, Iga Swiatek is the best female tennis player in the world right now.
Having said that, the fact that she lost the first set to the current number 108th player in the world in Ms. Niemeier, may indicate she is vulnerable.
Maybe.
We had high hopes and expectations for the hard hitting American Danielle Collins but in her loss to world number 6, Aryna Sabalenka, she faltered and even look demoralized.
The Belarus star, symbolically speaking, seemed to throw the kitchen sink at Danielle, often hitting her with it, as there was no second gear for her. It’s Sydney or the bush. On everything. She blasted first and second serves alike and powered virtually all of her ground strokes and fortunately, during that match, most of them landed in.
Sometimes they don’t.
That is the challenge with a high risk gunslinger.
Can Aryna beat Caroline?
The last time they played, at the Cincinnati Masters, Caroline won 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.
As far as America’s Jessica Pegula, who quietly just keeps winning, we give the edge to Caroline. After all, she recently defeated Jessica in Cincinnati 6-1, 7-5.
The dark horse is Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur.
She is playing exceptional tennis and completely dominated Ajla Tomljanovic, in straight sets, the same player that looked so formidable against Serena Williams.
It wasn’t even close.
Too, there is Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova. Even though she is a former world number one, few seem to expect her to be in the finals.
She often proves them wrong.
Is this Caroline’s time to break through and win the mighty US Open?
Possibly.
But, in our book, Iga Swiatek and Ons Jabeur will have something to say about that.
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OPENING PHOTO fciwomenswrestling2.com Femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com, fciwomenswrestling.com fcielitecompetitor.com Romain-Biard-Shutterstock-photo-credit-Editorial-us
https://www.amny.com/sports/us-open-riske-amritraj-eliminated-by-garcia/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Garcia
https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/06/tennis/iga-swiatek-jule-niemeier-us-open-intl-spt/index.html
https://www.fciwomenswrestling2.com
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
