A fanfare finale after the roller coaster?

Going from 75th to 6th place in the world during a flamboyant summer, Caroline Garcia approaches the Women's Masters, which starts Monday in Fort Worth, Texas, in full uncertainty.

The news fell on Friday: her trainer Bertrand Perret, preponderant in the rebirth of the Frenchwoman, semi-finalist of the US Open after winning three titles during the summer, has "decided to put an end to (his) collaboration" with her.

An "adventure ended (...) after the Guadalajara tournament" eight days ago, for non-sporting reasons, he then confirmed to

L'Équipe

, explaining that "in recent weeks, there have been problems ".

Less than a year of collaboration

Saturday, at a press conference, Garcia did not go into more detail.

“He decided to leave the team and I respected that decision.

I would just like to thank Bertrand for all the hard work done this year.

We started far and got to the top at the end of the season”.

This relationship ends less than a year after it began, at a time when Garcia was stuck in the hollow of the wave, after several lackluster years during which she had seemed in perdition, weighed down by injuries (back, foot) and sagging confidence.

Focus on aggression

It is by consolidating her in her playing identity, by encouraging her to redouble her aggressiveness, that Perret - former coach of the Chinese Peng Shuai and the Tunisian Ons Jabeur -, put Garcia back on the right track, this work combined with that aimed at solidifying his physical condition, in the hands of trainer Laura Legoupil.

The 29-year-old, who for a long time only knew one coach, her father Louis-Paul, between 2012 and 2021, reaped the rewards in the second half.

A coronation at Roland-Garros, in doubles with Kristina Mladenovic, sounded this summer awakening, confirmed by titles gleaned on the German grass of Bad Homburg, on the Polish clay of Warsaw and on the American cement of Cincinnati.

Madness in Cincy

In Ohio, despite qualifying, she won her third WTA 1000, the second category behind the Grand Slams.

Five years after her Chinese double in Wuhan and Beijing, which had opened the doors to the Masters for the first time, her career then stopped in the semi-finals in Singapore, after a defeat against the American Venus Williams.

It was in the shoes of a favorite that she then approached the US Open, showing herself to be impressive and imperturbable, until the last four where she cracked under the pressure, dryly beaten by Ons Jabeur.



Do like Mauresmo

Since then, as a decompensation effect, Garcia has not found a second wind, eliminated as soon as she enters the running in Tokyo and San Diego, then in the second round in Guadalajara, without this compromising her qualification for the "WTA Finals » where the Polish world N.1 Iga Swiatek, winner at Roland-Garros and Flushing Meadows, will be the huge favorite to succeed the Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruza.

Despite her current difficulties, Caro dreams of becoming in Fort Worth, the cradle of rodeo and country dancing, the second Frenchwoman to add her name to the winners of this event, 17 years after Amélie Mauresmo, who had been crowned at the expense of Mary Pierce.

Only four other French players took part: Françoise Dürr, Nathalie Tauziat, Julie Halard and Sandrine Testud.

Swiatek, Gauff and Kasatkina in the group

The task will nevertheless be complicated in this competition bringing together the seven other best players of the year.

The draw also reserved her first three matches against Iga Swiatek, the American Coco Gauff and the Russian Daria Kasatkina.

The other group will be made up of the Tunisian Ons Jabeur, the other American Jessica Pegula, the Greek Maria Sakkari and the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.

A strong competition that she will have to face without Bertrand Perret therefore, but with the occasional help of the Argentine coach Juan Pablo Guzman, who had already worked with her last year.

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