WTA Guadalajara: Garcia stretched to the limit by Marino before reaching last 16

Caroline Garcia will play the winner of the match between Swiss Belinda Bencic, the No 10 seed, and American Sloane Stephens in the next round

Caroline Garcia at the 2022 US Open in New York Image Credit: Antoine Couvercelle / Panoramic

Tennis Majors

October 19, 2022

Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, the No 6 seed, reached the round of 16 at the Guadalajara Open by edging out Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino in a three-set battle on Tuesday evening.

Garcia, a semi-finalist at the US Open and winner of the Cincinnati Open in August, needed two hours and 31 minutes to beat Marino 6-7 (2), 6-3, 7-6 (5).

Marino lead 6-5 in the third set but Garcia was strong enough to hold her serve and win the tie-break.

Garcia remains in good position for WTA Finals berth

Garcia is currently in seventh place in the Race to the WTA Finals, where five berths are still up for grabs. As many as 13 players could clinch those five spots depending on how the results in Guadalajara pan out this week.

13 players for 5 spots:

Gauff*
Sabalenka*
Kasatkina*
Garcia*
Sakkari*

Kudermetova**
Keys***
Bencic***
Badosa***
Collins****
Ostapenko*****
Samsonova*****
Rybakina*****

*in Q spot
Needs:
**1 win to stay alive
***SF to stay alive
****F to stay alive
******Title to stay alive
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) October 19, 2022

A former world No 4 in singles, Garcia, who is currently 10th in the world, will face the winner of the match between Olympic gold medallist Belinda Bencic, the No 10 seed, and former US Open champion Sloane Stephens next.

Probably the crowd from Mexico will help us like they did during the first rond. Garia was cheered for her words in Spanish at the end of her on-court interview.

THE 🇲🇽 CROWD CHEERING FOR HERR😍😍 she REALLY IS that LATINA GIRL IKTR🙏🇲🇽💃🇪🇸😌🇫🇷😭👏🌮😌 pic.twitter.com/u2KPRDNWtz
— 👑QueenGarcia👑#12INROUEN (@QueenGarciaa26) October 19, 2022