Australian Open: Caroline Garcia, last Frenchwoman to race, eliminated in 8th

She was one of the favorites for the Australian Open. France’s Caroline Garcia, world number 4, was eliminated in the round of 16 by Poland’s Magda Lynette (45th) 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 this Monday in Melbourne.

Garcia, who was the last Frenchwoman in the race, reached the semi-finals at the US Open and won the year-end Masters in Fort Worth, the most beautiful title of her career to date.

But it’s Lynette, who has never made it past the third round of a Grand Slam tournament, who will take on Czech Karolina Pliskova (31st) for a place in the semi-finals. The latter eliminated China’s Shuai Zhang (22nd) 6-0, 6-4 in less than an hour.

“I don’t believe… I don’t understand what happened… I have no words,” admitted Lynette, who, at 30 years old (on February 12, she will be 31), never made it through the third round. Grand Slam earlier.

It so happened that she took advantage of the failure of Garcia, especially on the pitch, to beat her. And after an early defeat on the eve of her compatriot and the first racket of the world, Iga Swiatek, she will represent Poland in the quarterfinals.

“I can not do it anymore! »

“My serve was the key because it punished me when I wasn’t effective on a face-off,” said the Polish player, who had a 75% first serve success rate.

For his part, Garcia, whose very risky play relies heavily on his own pitching, only hit 49% of first pitches.

The French also made 33 unforced errors on 27 winning shots against Lynette’s 14 unforced errors and 25 winning shots.

However, Garcia started the meeting with a double break, which allowed him to win back 3:0. She served the set at 5-4, but Lynette took over before dominating the tiebreaker.

In the second set, Garcia repeatedly expressed his growing frustration by hitting the ground with his racquet or saying “I can’t take it anymore!” screamed from the first game of the inning.

The Polka made a decisive break and took a 5-4 lead and qualified on her first match point on her serve.