(Reuters) – Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia was left with “mixed feelings” after reaching her first WTA 1000 semi-final in four years at the Cincinnati Open, saying tennis can be a difficult sport where players are often forgotten easily owing to poor form.
Garcia, who came through the qualifiers in Cincinnati, downed seventh seed Jessica Pegula 6-1 7-5 on Friday to set up a last-four clash with Aryna Sabalenka.
The world number 35, who rose as high as four in 2018, was delighted with her recent form but said that performing consistently at the highest level was not easy.
“Yeah, it’s always a mixed feeling, I will say, because when you do bad, people forget about yourself pretty fast and forget about what you did in the past,” Garcia, the reigning French Open doubles champion, told reporters.
“As soon as you can get a couple of wins in a row under your belt and playing better tennis, it’s like you are a top star again, you know. Like you go from a loser to maybe one of the best players right now.
“Obviously I guess the experience from the past is going to help me to manage and to make the good decision and keep the good mindset to keep it going.”
Garcia, the winner of two titles this season, also upset world number three Maria Sakkari earlier in the week.
She added that playing the qualifiers was challenging but the extra matches had given her a confidence boost for the rest of the season.
“Quallies are not easy…I had to play a lot of matches. It’s good for me, because it give me confidence that the hard work we are doing…is paying off, because I managed to go on court every time as easily as I can and with good feeling in my legs.”
(Reporting by Dhruv Munjal in Bengaluru; Editing by Sam Holmes)
