By Amy Tennery
NEW YORK (Reuters) – France’s Caroline Garcia is beginning to believe “good things can happen again” in New York, after clawing her way out of a career slump to reach her first-ever U.S. Open quarter-final.
She notched her 12th straight win over American Alison Riske-Amritraj 6-4 6-1 Sunday after becoming the first qualifier to win a WTA Tour 1000 event in Cincinnati, the final of three titles she’s collected so far this year.
It’s the culmination of a long road back for the former world number four, who returned from a foot injury in May ranked 79th, having not collected a singles title since 2019.
“I’m having fun, enjoying playing that way, and on top of it I’m glad it’s working and it’s a good way for me,” she said.
Garcia said she experienced a critical epiphany at the Bad Homburg tournament in June, where she was down a set to Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the opening round and said to herself “You have to go for it.”
“You miss, you miss, but you have to do something. You have to change, you have to find a way to improve,” she told reporters in New York. “I was practicing to be aggressive, to move forward, but I had some issue to do it on court in matches, and that’s where it changed, really in the second set of that first round.
“I went for it. I didn’t know if it was going to work, but I believe.”
She went for it indeed, beating former U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu in the final to end her dry spell before reaching the last 16 at Wimbledon.
“I will say we were probably saying, ‘Good things can happen again’,” said Garcia, who was in such good form that she won in Warsaw in July, downing world number one Iga Swiatek in the process.
She’s playing with joy in Flushing Meadows and on Sunday held her arms outstretched and beamed wildly after sending across eight aces and 30 winners to trounce the home hope.
To keep the party rolling she’ll have to overcome an in-form Coco Gauff, a fan favourite who reached the Roland-Garros final earlier this year.
“I got some tough years in there. I got some experience. We have been working hard to come back to the top level. I’m really glad to be at this level again. Really enjoying it,” she said.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
