Will the Miami Open melt away Caroline Garcia's icy performances?
"Is it how you play or who you play?" It might be a coincidence but the last three tournaments France's Caroline Garcia was tossed the same opponent, unfortunately with the same results. She had just finished up with the Dubai Duty Free where she's had a successful opening round opposite Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova winning 6-2, 6-0. But it was her second round that stung when she faced former UCLA tennis lady Jennifer Brady for the second time. The rallies were intense but she came out on the short end of the points losing in straight sets 4-6, 5-7. It was their first meet at the Thailand Open last year where Garcia had a sample of Brady's looping shots and powerhouse returns. She didn't fair well then and lost in the first round 4-6, 6-7.
The BNP Paribas desert tournament at Indian Wells has a soothing environment, warm pleasant days but sometimes cool to cold nights. Garcia's opening round was with Jennifer Brady which resulted in a far from sizzling performance. It may have been jinxed by knowing the head-to-head statistics of two losses lay heavy over her head. Brady had admitted to the tennis.com media that "I actually started laughing when the draw came out just thinking about it...we've played already twice in the past month; a third time and it's only March."
Naturally, it wouldn't be such a funny thing to Garcia who might feel that playing Jennifer Brady as not 'the luck' of the draw but as 'her misfortune'. Garcia carries a sufficient resume of six singles and six doubles titles and now in the top 20 in the world. Brady came into Indian Wells ranked 83, but who knows what number she'll leave with if she continues to be aggressive and consistent.
The Frenchwoman hasn't gotten past the third round of any tournament since mid-October when she won the Tianjin Open title off of Karolina Pliskova. Just to think it was a few years ago that Garcia had given up doubles to concentrate more on her singles level and in the process had captured six titles. Garcia had played Zoe Hives, a young Australian player at the beginning of the season's Australian Open. She had commented at press time on her win over Hives, saying she's never played her before or seen her much around the tour, but won because "...I stayed calm and played a little bit better in the important points..." This is exactly what Garcia has to do in her matches to come, possibly getting back her 'mojo' and crawl back to the top 10, a place she started earning her WTA titles.
from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/2ETiwV4
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