Frenchwomen went 3-for-3 in their first-round matches at the Cincinnati Open on Friday in Mason, Ohio, and all of them won three-setters that featured a few twists and turns.
Veteran Caroline Garcia, the 2022 Cincinnati Open champion, made it difficult on herself before pulling out a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 victory over Sonay Kartal of Great Britain. Garcia squandered a 3-0 lead in the first set and nearly frittered away a 5-2 margin in the second.
But Garcia got the job done, winning 70 percent of her first-serve points (35 of 50) and saving 6 of 9 break points. Kartal pushed her by saving 11 of 15 break points to stay alive in certain games.
“It was so hot, so tough out there. I didn’t play a lot of matches in the last couple of months,” Garcia said. “At the end of the first set I was exhausted. I felt like I let my opportunity go away, and it was a long way to the end of the match. But for some reason I got a lot of support from my team and the people here, and I wanted to try to the end.”
Garcia, 31, is preparing for the U.S. Open, which will be her final tournament before retirement.
Garcia’s countrywoman Varvara Gracheva earned a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Katie Volynets, saving 7 of 12 break points while converting 6 of 11 opportunities to break her opponent’s serve.
And another French player prevailed in the longest match of the day so far. Leolia Jeanjean took down Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva 7-5, 1-6, 6-4 in three hours and five minutes.
Taylor Townsend finished off Danielle Collins 6-4, 7-6 (2) in an all-American match, in which Collins served seven aces but committed six double faults along the way.
Cincinnati hometown favorite Caty McNally cruised past Australian qualifier Maddison Inglis 6-2, 6-3.
Other winners included Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova, New Zealand’s Lulu Sun, Lucia Bronzetti of Italy, Australians Ajla Tomljanovic and Kimberly Birrell, Ella Seidel of Germany, Camila Osorio of Colombia, Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria and Maria Sakkari of Greece.
Victors in later matches were Iva Jovic, China’s Xinyu Wang and Yue Yuan, Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova, Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova and the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova.
–Field Level Media
