Caroline Garcia gives France the upper hand

Caroline Garcia packs a punch

Upcoming tennis star Caroline Garcia put on a spirited display to put France in the driver’s seat in the ongoing Fed Cup finals. Up against the defending champions Czech Republic, the 23 year old trumped the 6th ranked Karolina Pliskova 6-3,3-6,6-3.

This victory gave France a 2-1 edge over the Czech. Garcia had put up another brilliant display yesterday, defeating Petra Kvitova to level the score 1-1. This came after Pliskova had registered an amazing victory over Kristina Mladenovic a day before.

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Garcia prevailed in her very first match point. Thus, she put France a point adrift of their first title since 2003. Reacting to the great victory, she said “It was a good match. We knew we had to play our best tennis. We’re 2-1 up but it’s not over yet.”

Brief summary of the match

Before the start of the match, there was a minute’s applause commemorating the demise of 130 people in the Paris attacks. However, when the match started, the world number 23 got off to a rollicking start, aggressively breaking serve to go 3-1 up.

The Frenchwoman would maintain the stranglehold on her opponent throughout the first set. Though the world number 6 Pliskova managed a mini-comeback, Caroline Garcia triumphed eventually by breaking Pliskova in the eighth game of the deciding set. Following that, Garcia closed out the match with great poise and style.

Other encounters

Up next, Alize Cornet will take on World Number 19 Barbora Strycova on Sunday. This will be the reverse singles event and will be critical to Czech Republic’s title hunt. This would be their 5th title in six years, thus registering an impressive record.

In other encounters, Caroline Garcia outclassed the elegant Kvitova 7-6, 6-3 in a hard-fought match. Also in one of the best encounters of the Fed Cup, Pliskova scratched past Mladenovic 6-3,4-6,16-14 in dramatic fashion.