Garcia “manages his stress” and p***es the first round in Madrid

Caroline Garcia, the fifth player in the world, logically qualified for the second round of the WTA 1000 in Madrid on Thursday, but admitted having had tomanage stressto overcome the Kazakh Yulia Putintseva (52nd) 6-3, 6-4. Her best tennis, the Frenchwoman found it… in the last game, when she was serving for the match. An ace, two winning volley services and a return service out of his opponent for a clear shutout!

But there it was, the icing on a cake that had been hard to swallow. Garcia generally managed the Kazakh’s services well, but she had a hard time getting the upper hand on her own commitments, like this 6th game of the second set lost, during which her frustration took over. “But why do you do that ?she yelled to herself, feverish and tense, after knocking a seemingly winning ball off the court. “I had to deal with my stress, but I’m glad I stayed focused and won.“, she admitted after the match.

Caught up by her demons at the start of the season?

After winning the first set 6-3, she had started the second well, until the 7th game, where her nervousness took over. Putinsteva took her serve, then came back at 4-3. We feared then, in this 8th game, that Garcia would disunite, overtaken by her demons at the start of the season. A ball in the net, an unnecessary direct fault put her in difficulty. But she got out of the trap to avoid her opponent’s return.

At 5-3 service to follow, it was urgent for her to recover to avoid being won over by doubt. She did it in the most beautiful way. She will meet in the second round the Egyptian Mayar Sherif, 61st in the world.