By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday September 6, 2022

Flushing Meadows, NY— Caroline Garcia has been in rude form since June, and the 17th-seeded Frenchwoman is showing no signs of slowing down at the US Open.



On Tuesday night inside a packed Arthur Ashe stadium the 28-year-old put the kibosh on 18-year-old Coco Gauff’s title hopes and boosted her own with a resounding 6-3, 6-4 victory.

“My head is just buzzing,” she told the crowd after her 97-minute victory.

It may have been, but there was undeniable clarity in her game.

Garcia raced out to a 4-0 lead with a jaw-dropping display of first-strike tennis, and answered the bell every time Gauff tried to close the gap. The American teen, bidding to become the youngest American woman to reach the US Open semifinals since Serena Williams in 1999, did her best to get the crowd behind her, but everytime she drew close to Garcia the Frenchwoman tapped the accelerator and went on the attack.

Gauff regained a break and closed to 2-4 in the opener, and even angled for a break to get back on serve in the next game, but Garcia survived the three-deuce affair, cracking back-to-back forehand winners to lead 5-2.

She served out the set two games later, closing the final two points at net, from 30-30.

Gauff opened the second set on the wrong foot once again, committing back to back errors—two of 24 on the night—to hand over the break and a 1-0 lead to Garcia. Dejected, she pounded her racquet into the court in disgust after the game.

The anger, the energy and the will to fight were there for Gauff, but she was outmatched in the precision and power department by Garcia on this rainy evening in Queens.

"For me today her level was great," Gauff said. "I knew it was going to be great coming in. I feel I didn't play at the level I needed to to come out with the win today. Overall I'm super proud of myself on this tournament. But I'm hungry for more. So maybe next year."

Meanwhile the crowd sat on its hands, a low din muffling the sounds of the players beneath the closed rood, as Gauff tried to scratch and claw her way into an opportunity.

Not many came, and the ones that did were quickly snuffed out confidently by Garcia, who smacked a perfect serve at 3-2, 30-40 for a service winner to get to deuce. For an encore, she did the same thing at deuce and then clinched the game on the next point as Gauff rifled a backhand passing attempt wide.

There was a window for Gauff on the play, but also a theme taking hold: it was Garcia forcing the issue and making her opponent beat her off the back foot.

Gauff, held her own on serve, but Garcia, who has been broken just three times in five matches, held at 30 in her final two service games to close out one of the biggest victories of her career.

Garcia finished with 24 winners against 22 unforced errors, and she won 78 percent of her first serve points.

Gauff hit 18 winners against 24 unforced errors, and was broken in three of her nine service games.

A winner in 31 of her last 35 matches dating back to her run to the Bad Homburg title on grass this summer, Garcia has been the best player in the women’s singles draw in New York thus far. She has dropped just 27 games while overwhelming her opponents with her bold and brave first-strike tennis.

But five victories do not make a Slam champion. Garcia will need to jump the hurdle known as Ons Jabeur in the semifinals, and she has struggled with the Tunisian in the past. Jabeur owns the 2-0 edge, but the pair have met four more times in juniors with Jabeur winning all of those as well.

"It was really a challenge for me to play her in junior," Garcia said. "We played in senior I think two years ago also. It gave me the challenge. She was a rare kind of style. Yeah, a few times she stopped me on my way to get a slams in juniors. It's fun to see two player again in semifinal in US Open. It's a great challenge for my game, for me. I'm really looking forward to it. Try to do the best I can."

But this new and improved version of the Frenchwoman has become a ringer at handling all challenges that come her way.