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- Caroline Garcia [6] def. Elina Svitolina [3] 6-7(4) 6-4 6-2
STUTTGART, GERMANY – Caroline Garcia stepped things up a gear to manoeuvre around Elina Svitolina in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix semi-finals.
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Caroline Garcia [6] def. Elina Svitolina [3] 6-7(4) 6-4 6-2
This was always going to be one of the more evenly contested quarter-finals of the day as Caroline Garcia extended her head to head over the No. 3 seed Elina Svitolina in a tight three-setter.
The Frenchwoman has already matched her best performance, having reached the quarter-final on her debut in 2015. Her confidence was already on a high after finally burying the demons of that infamous match against Maria Sharapova at Roland Garros. At a time when the shy Frenchwoman hated the attention from the home crowd, to see her positively react to the crowd, reaching the quarter-finals of her home slam has shown how much she has grown as a player.
One of the more nervy players at times, she h=came through a tough match against Marta Kostyuk in the next round, and snapped her 0-2 record in quarter-final matches for the year (Doha and Dubai).
Claiming her first top 10 win of the season, Garcia said: You are not perfect. You know I want to go for my shot and maybe I go for too much and so I missed it. But is it better than to not go at all? I don’t know. So, sometimes you have to learn why you did the mistake and try to move on and be better on the next shot you have, and that’s very important. I’m aggressive so I make mistakes but I try to do as less as I can by being very active with my legs and be as most focussed as I can.
“You get some answers and for sure it’s against a top player because the limit, the difference between each other is very close and we give one hundred percent. So, it’s very interesting to play these matches even if you know that it’s going to be difficult and physically and mentally you have to give everything you have.”
Although Svitolina’s time on the slick Stuttgart courts were short on her Porsche Tennis debut, there were a lot of positives to take from a high-quality match.
Svitolina said: “I think I was ready for the match and I was playing good. It was a good match from both of us. I think we played really good tennis and for me it was a good thing that I could see that the things that I’ve been working on are working.
“Of course, you know, it’s tough to play someone who is playing great. You know you have to really keep your level. Today, unfortunately I couldn’t match in the end. It’s just process of transition to clay court.”
One of the unique features of this tournament is a packed field (eight out of the Top 10 players are here) and pits the top seeds against quality players from the get-go. After all we had Angelique Kerber and Petra Kvitova repeat their Fed Cup encounter from just a few days ago in the same stadium.
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Kerber cruises, Halep hustles into Porsche Tennis second round
Svitolina continued: “It puts more pressure on you to play better because when you train a lot, you lose a little bit of competition and all these pressure moments where you have to really be one hundred percent focussed on what you have to do. So, that’s why when you are playing top players you have to be spot on. Definitely, it’s going to help me to get better and to see that what I’m doing and for the movement as well of course which is very important on clay. It’s good. I had two good matches here. You know, I have lots of positive things here.”
Garcia will face Coco Vandeweghe in the semi-final on Saturday, not before 3:50pm (2:50pm BST).
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