New York (AFP)

The crisis of confidence again hit Caroline Garcia, eliminated on Monday in the first round of the US Open, while Kristina Mladenovic had a great performance by defeating 2016 winner Angelique Kerber and Serena Williams crushed Maria Sharapova.

Garcia lost 7-6 (10/8), 6-2 in 1:30 against Tunisian Ons Jabeur (62).

"Trust, you lose it like that in one second and to recover, you have to whip for a long time," said the French N.1 and 27th world. She has not won a single match in three tournaments (US Open, Cincinnati and Toronto).

Since her title in Nottingham in June, the 25-year-old has participated in seven tournaments and has never done better than a quarter-final the following week in Mallorca. For the rest, she has four defeats in the first round and two in the second.

"It's very difficult to live every day, games like that, to get out of this and have the confidence you want to win games so ... it's complicated," she said.

Led in the first set, Garcia managed to break up to return to 6-6, but she gave in the decisive game.

"It was hard to lose that first set, but I knew it was not over because I managed to break it in the second set," she said.

Indeed, she took the service of Jabeur to lead 2-1 in the second set, but the Tunisian immediately disbursed to line up five consecutive games and win.

"Whenever it was necessary to accelerate a little or to get a little more points, I did not have the confidence to do it," lamented the Frenchwoman.

On the contrary, Mladenovic (54th) got a good qualification at the expense of Kerber, ex-world N.1 today 14th, 7-5, 0-6, 6-4.

In the next round, the 26-year-old Frenchwoman will face her compatriot Fiona Ferro (74th).

After a first set run she won on her fourth set ball, Mladenovic completely dropped the second.

- "Muscle spasms" -

"I felt a point in the lower back at the end of the first set," she explained. "It was just muscle spasm, I do not want to talk about injury," she added.

The French camp also deplores the eliminations of Adrian Mannarino, Corentin Moutet, Elliot Benchetrit and Pierre-Hugues Herbert. But Lucas Pouille, Grégoire Barrère and Jérémy Chardy have increased to 5 out of 10 in the running the number of Tricolores qualified for the second round.

"It was not an obvious first round, I'm happy to get out in 4 sets" 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 against German Philipp Kohlschreiber (72), confessed Apulia.

Chardy, he believes to have "made a very good match from start to finish" against the Polish Hubert Hurkacz (35th), beaten 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (6/8), 6-1, 6 -4. The rest taken to treat a painful foot seems to have borne fruit.

For the rest, men's favorites like Novak Djokovic and Daniil Medvedev easily qualified.

- From shock to flop -

The shock of the day was expected just after the official opening ceremony on the monumental court Arthur-Ashe ... but Serena Williams just smashed Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-1 at the same not one hour (59 minutes).

"It's never easy to play against Maria, and after the draw, all my training was very hard, very sharp, because it was a very difficult draw," said Williams.

The 37-year-old American, who dreams of equaling her record of 24 Grand Slam titles in front of her audience, has not won a tournament since the Australian Open, her 23rd Major in January 2017. And her 2019 season was largely thwarted by injuries, first to the knee, then to the back.

"The body is fine," assured the American after qualifying on Monday. "My back is a lot better, so we're going to have fun!", She told a delighted audience that had only to wait for the arrival on the court of Roger Federer.

© 2019 AFP