By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Former world No. 4 Caroline Garcia swept US Open champion Emma Raducanu 6-3, 6-3 soaring into the Wimbledon third round for the third time.
Photo credit: Rob Newell/Getty
The sight of Emma Raducanu stepping onto Centre Court prompted popping champagne corks on Henman Hill.
British fans came to celebrate Raducanu's Centre Court return with plenty of party favors.
More: Venus Partners Jamie Murray in Mixed Doubles
An inspired Caroline Garcia continued to play proactive party crasher.
Former world No. 4 Garcia swept British No. 1 Raducanu 6-3, 6-3 soaring into the Wimbledon third round for the third time.
It is Garcia's seventh straight grass-court victory with both of her Wimbledon wins this week coming over British players.
An assertive Garcia doubled Raducanu's winner output (25 to 12) avenging a three-set Indian Wells loss to Raducanu last March.
"I'm definitely very happy with my performance today," Garcia told the media. "I knew it was going to be a tough match, and to play on Centre Court is never easy for the first time. I'm really pleased with the way I played my match and I went for it.
"Of course when you play someone who played very well in the past in this tournament, and she's obviously very successful in big events, I know she was going to play her best today. She was on Centre Court, it's my first time, so I was just really trying to be focused on myself, how I could prepare, and wait for the best from her and just be prepared of my game what I wanted to do, be aggressive and just try one point at a time."
US Open champion Raducanu won her Centre Court debut in the first round, but was playing catch-up from the start today. Ultimately, the 19-year-old Briton couldn't create solutions as a season of struggles continues.
Raducanu has not won back-to-back Grand Slam matches since she shocked the world winning 10 consecutive straight-set matches to make history as the first qualifier, male or female, to capture a major singles crown in New York last September.
Flushing Meadows was just the fourth Tour-level event of Raducanu's career—and today's defeat was another sign of growing pains.
"Caroline is a great player. I struggled to find a way through her," Raducanu said. "But it's OK because coming into this I didn't really have many expectations of myself...To be honest I don't think I deserved to win this match. She played very well."
A side strain limited Raducanu to just seven games on grass this season, while a red-hot Garcia beat former Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki, Alize Cornet and Bianca Andreescu in succession to collect her eighth career title on the grass of Bad Homburg.
Set an attacking tone from the outset. Garcia soared forehand to knock off a high forehand volley to break for a 2-0 lead. Though Raducanu broke right back in the third game, Garcia continued to apply pressure both with the depth of her drives and dynamic footwork that saw her step inside the court more frequently. Garcia broke again for 4-2 and served out the first set at 15.
The depth of Garcia's drives sometimes pushed Raducanu back behind the baseline and when she was pressured into passes, the British No. 1 sometimes flatlined her drives into net.
"Since the French Open, the biggest thing has been my time on court has been extremely minimal," Raducanu said. "I really did not train very much. That's due to different sorts of niggles and things that have been lingering around.
"That's obviously something I'm going to be focusing on, getting my body ready and just playing tennis basically."
Embed from Getty Images
Two-time Roland Garros doubles champion Garcia looked more comfortable in the frontcourt than Raducanu and wisely pressed that advantage. Garcia broke for a 4-3 second set lead then rallied from 15-30 down in the ensuing game firing a crucial ace down the T to hold for 5-3. Garcia ran off three games in a row sealing an 86-minute triumph with her customary jet jump across the court.
Garcia will play for her second career trip to the Wimbledon fourth round when she faces Zhang Shuai in round three. The 33rd-seeded Chinese saved seven of eight break points in a 7-6(6), 6-2 win over Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk.