Garcia will not go after his dream

The awakening is difficult in France… Caroline Garcia, seeded number 4, lost in the round of 16 of the Australian Open this Monday against the Polish Magda Linette (7-6 [3], 6-4), in Melbourne. Only two of the top ten seeds remain in the tournament, Jessica Pegula (3) and Aryna Sabalenka (5).

Already suffering in her third round against Laura Siegemund, Caroline Garcia failed to raise her level of play on Monday at the Rod Laver Arena. Opposed to the 45th player in the world, the Frenchwoman started the match perfectly with a double break to quickly lead 3-0. But she never managed to free herself completely on the court.

With only 49% of first serves and 39% of points won behind her second, the world number four was betrayed by her serve on Monday. Magda Linette, more precise (14 unforced errors against 33 for Caroline Garcia), took the opportunity to pick up the score while her opponent served to win the first set at 5-4.

Garcia, like in 2018

In a better dynamic, the Pole managed to overtake Caroline Garcia on the wire to win the tie-break 7 points to 3 and thus switch to the lead. Frustrated and without a solution, the Frenchman had the merit of hanging on by saving four break points in the second act, without however getting a single one on her side.

Present for the first time in the round of 16 of a Grand Slam, Magda Linette waited patiently to finally find the opening at 4-4 by converting her tenth break point of the match. The 30-year-old was then able to finish on her serve to clinch her first major quarter-final. “I don’t believe it, I can’t believe it! I don’t know what happened. » said the Polish woman after the match.

Caroline Garcia has said goodbye to her dream of winning a Grand Slam tournament. The Frenchwoman never managed to find the game that had allowed her to climb to the half at the US Open and win the WTA Finals. She leaves Melbourne in the round of 16, as in 2018. Linette, 45th player in the world at the WTA, will face the Czech Karolina Pliskova, seeded n ° 30 in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.

The other meetings of the round of 16 at the Australian Open (Grand Slam, hard, 24,297,942 USD, results are displayed from newest to oldest):

• Karolina Pliskova – Shuai Zhang (N.23) : 6-0, 6-4
• Donna Vekic – Linda Fruhvirtova : 6-2, 1-6, 6-3
• Aryna Sabalenka (No.5) beat Belinda Bencic (No.12): 7-5, 6-2
• Victoria Azarenka (N.24) – Lin Zhu : 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
• Jessica Pegula (N.3) – Barbora Krejcikova (N.20) : 7-5, 6-2
• Jelena Ostapenko (N.17) – Coco Gauff (N.7) : 7-5, 6-3
• Elena Rybakina (N.22) – Iga Swiatek (N.1) : 6-4, 6-4