Call it the morning after the night before for French tennis.
Shortly after midnight, Gaël Monfils had sent local spirits soaring at Roland Garros with an epic five-set set win over Sebastian Baez that ended with the French veteran lying flat on his back on the Parisian clay, weeping uncontrollably.
But the emotions of the previous evening had barely subsided before Gallic hearts were split asunder by Anna Blinkova, a 24-year-old Russian ranked 56th in the world, who defeated Caroline Garcia, the fifth seed and the home nation’s only genuine hope of a singles champion, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
In an extraordinary finale, Garcia fought desperately to prolong her stay by the Seine, fighting off eight match points from 4-5 down in the decider as she threatened to pull off another wildly unlikely French comeback. Monfils had established the template, recovering from 4-0 down in the final set to subdue Baez, but neither a fiercely partisan crowd nor the incredible attacking bravery of Garcia could divert Blinkova as she homed in on the biggest win of her career.
“I’m disappointed about the result, and I think I could have played better tennis, but she played very good,” said Garcia.
“She managed the crowd very well and kept very calm after having so many match points.”
Blinkova might easily have crumbled when Garcia spanked a trio of mighty forehands to deny her as she served for the match for the first time. Yet she knows what it is to defeat Garcia here. Four years ago, Blinkova came from a set down to topple the Frenchwoman at the same stage of the tournament, and she immediately seized a break to give herself a second chance.
The 11 minutes that followed were desperately fraught. Two double faults, either side of a magnificent forehand pass by Garcia, saw three more match points come and go. Two more opportunities were passed up with errors off her previously reliable backhand. Meanwhile, Garcia twice missed chances to break. Had she done so, it would surely have been a disappointment too far for Blinkova, but it was not a possibility the resolute Russian was willing to entertain. A deep first serve flew off the line, and Blinkova was through to the third round of a major for only the second time.
“I cannot even describe how much it means,” said Blinkova. “Playing on this court, on Philippe Chatrier, it’s been my dream, and to play against a top-five player is always something special.
“When I won my first round and then my coach told me that I’m going to play against Caroline Garcia on the Philippe Chatrier, I couldn’t think about anything else.
“I was just thinking and dreaming how I will play and how I will win. So it’s a very special day for me. I will probably never forget it. Also, because 7-5 in the third, having so many match points, and very tough end of the match, and I finally did it. It’s an unbelievable feeling.”
Questions were raised afterwards about Garcia’s shot selection and tactics, particularly her decision to keep pressing in the final game, when Blinkova understandably became nervous. Garcia made a whopping 50 unforced errors, and certainly there were times when a more conservative approach might have reaped dividends.
Yet it was Garcia’s derring-do that enabled her to save the first cluster of match points she faced, and renewed faith in her aggressive instincts has been a key factor in her renaissance over the past 12 months. Ranked 79th this time last year, the 29-year-old has won titles in Warsaw, Cincinnati and at the WTA Finals, all by playing bold, first-strike tennis. It is a fine line she walks, but Garcia has never been one simply to push the ball back into play and wait for a mistake. Her chief disappointment afterwards was that she hadn’t gone after her shots with greater conviction.
“I know what I have to do on court, but then I get afraid that I will not make it, that I will fail in unrolling my game plan,” said Garcia. “I start to make mistakes. Then my balls are too short on my opponent. It’s tough to lose after playing like this.
“It’s a dilemma that I shouldn’t even have. Had I needed more evidence after last year’s season, I shouldn’t need any more. What I mean is that I could have winners, and on the flip side I can also make unforced errors.
“Sometimes when I’m on the court, I don’t dare go to the net. I don’t dare pummel through my balls. And the greatest regret I have is that I don’t up my game when I should. When I won in the past, then I would actually go to the net, I would actually take the balls even when they are short. That means that I actually seized all the opportunities when they were there.
“But this is not the case here. My backhand is bad. Everything is bad. And this is what is tough to digest right now.”
These are difficult times for French tennis. With 11 players ranked in the top 100, the depth in the men’s game is there, but no one has yet assumed the mantle of Monfils and Richard Gasquet, both of whom are former top-10 players and grand slam semi-finalists. The pick of the bunch right now is Ugo Humbert, the 24-year-old French No 1, who is ranked 40th in the world and lost in straight sets on Wednesday to Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego.
Garcia aside, things are little better on the women’s side, where France has just four top-100 players. In fairness, the cavalry may be coming, not least in the shape of a pair of former junior world No 1s: Diane Parry, a richly gifted 20-year-old, and Clara Burel, 22, who reached the semi-finals in Strasbourg last week. For the men, the charge is led by 18-year-old Arthur Fils and Luca Van Assche, 19. Both are ranked in the top 100, and both were been beaten this week by Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. For the time being, though, the French production line has stalled.
There was further bad news for the French game late on Wednesday night when Monfils withdrew from the tournament with a wrist injury. The 36-year-old was scheduled to face Holger Rune, the sixth seed, in the night session. Monfils said he had recovered well after battling through cramp to defeat Baez, but was advised to pull out following medical evaluation of damage to the triangular fibrocartilage complex, an area of ligaments and cartilage that attaches the forearm to the wrist.
“I was quite happy this morning, I woke up quite good,” said Monfils. “But I have the problem with my wrist that I cannot solve. I felt it during the whole match.
“The doctor said it was not good to play with that type of injury. Yesterday was actually very risky, and then today definitely [he said] I should stop.
“I’m not really sure what I feel, but it’s more than being disappointed. How many [more] Roland Garroses will I play? That’s the question. I don’t know what the answer is. How many will I play?”