Caroline Garcia, from Murray’s prophecy to the Us Open semifinal in 11 years

In 2011, there were less than a third of the users on Twitter today and the politicians, the few who had already signed up, still weren’t using it to campaign. It was basically a big reunion of friends. One of the few present was Andy Murray, who while enjoying a match at Roland Garros firmly grabbed his BlackBerry and tweeted: “That little girl who is playing against Sharapova is going to become number one in the world. What a player “.

The prophecy

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Very long, slender, with a thick black band covering her forehead from her hair, fast feet and uncertain movements as a teenager in the world of grown-ups. The seventeen-year-old who for the first time appeared to the general public was Caroline Garcia and, while Murray pressed the small black buttons of her phone, she had just snatched a set from a multiple Grand Slam champion, who then reassembled it with the strength of experience. 11 years later, the British tennis player’s prophecy has not yet come true. At 28 and after seasons of ups and downs, Garcia will return to the Top 10 on Monday and he has not yet gone to the top. Yet, without relying on the ranking, you have played better than almost everyone on the circuit in recent months. All but one of her, that Ons Jabeur who interrupted her streak of 13 consecutive victories by beating her in her first Grand Slam semifinal, at the US Open.

Enfant prodige

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In 2011, Garcia was number 161 in the WTA ranking, but enjoyed great fame as a junior, having been the fifth in the world of the youth circuit. That set with Sharapova that was supposed to be the start of a glorious career, however, turned into a dangerous precedent. Or “a challenge”, as she recently called it. “After that game I felt a lot of pressure coming in, in a totally unexpected way. It was tough, people expected a lot from me, but I wasn’t ready for anything like that ”. If only Murray had kept his BlackBerry in his pocket.

The flight

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Over the years Garcia has nevertheless been an excellent player, with short but intense peaks, which she dusted here and there sparkling weeks of form in otherwise dark years. She also reached number 4 in the ranking in 2018, capitalizing on the two WTA 1000s won on Chinese hardcourt in December of the previous year. In this 2022, however, she seems to have finally hit the right buttons. It all started again from Roland Garros, where she won the doubles tournament together with Kiki Mladenovic – repeating the success of 2016. There she ignited the spark. The fire broke out in June, on the meadows of Bad Homburg, where she won the first singles title of a season which today travels at an altitude of three. There, her tennis changed. “I won the first game playing badly, really badly, but I understood what I had to do on the pitch to make a turn.” And so her hashtag about her, #FlyWithCaro, is back in trend: her signature of her in every post and her way of celebrating every victory – performing in a high jump where she seems to take flight.

Clear path

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The evolution was dizzying. Until her defeat to Jabeur, Garcia went from being a moments player to becoming a steamroller. Above all thanks to the new technical guide, that Bertrand Perret who replaced his father Louis Paul, a lifelong coach. Apart from the band on the forehead that he never removed, Perret made her a new tennis player without upsetting her game, but simplifying it. The French, always aggressive but often uncertain, has resolved her continuing dilemma between prudence and risk. “Now my path is much clearer than ever in the past”.

That is to say, Garcia has learned to asphyxiate opponents with risky tennis, which travels on the fine line between aggression and unconsciousness. The answers with their feet well in the field (those that “if he takes another step he takes it”) are now a trademark. The heaviness of his forehand has become a very hard weapon to defuse, and he knows how to complement the baseline balls with smart and refined net descents, inherited from a good doubles career. And then the serve, which when he comes in unforgiving – is the season leader of the aces, with 286. “I know this is the direction I have to take because it’s tennis that works for me. It doesn’t matter who I have in front of me, nor the pressure ”. And in fact, from the new technical guide, he doesn’t even look at them anymore. So much so that in the press conference she goes there only on one condition: no questions about the next opponent, never let them make her doubt about her “direction”.

Nightmare Jabeur

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For two months she seemed unbeatable. In fact, she was. Only on the way to the Cincinnati title had she taken out opponents of the caliber of Sakkari, Pegula, Sabalenka and Pliskova; earlier, in Warsaw, she had defeated number 1 Swiatek; in New York you knocked out the Gauff house idol in the quarters. In a summer of fire, it was almost only the Italian Ciocciaretto in Bronzetti, in Palermo, who really put her in difficulty. And then came Jabeur, who in the US Open semifinal came back to ruin her plans to win a Grand Slam, just as it had already happened several times in their junior rivalry. Already at a very young age, the Tunisian tennis player had created “many problems” – in Garcia’s word – with her variations and her slices. As an adult the script was the same, with the Frenchwoman coming out stunned by the combination of big stage and opponent that she knew exactly how she defused. She lost 6-1 6-3, looking clumsy and with no way out like never recently. “But the way forward remains this, my path is clear”, she reiterated after the defeat. Who knows that sooner or later it will not lead her to fulfill Andy Murray’s prophecy.