The French Caroline Garcia yielded to the American Alycia Parks, much more convincing, in the final on Sunday at the WTA tournament in Lyon. Winner in three sets, the native of Atlanta won her first title on the big circuit. Aged 22, the latter had so far won only two WTA 125 tournaments, in December in Andorra la Vella and Angers.
Calm and imperturbable in the face of pressure but also thanks to her physique (1.85m), she was able to rely on her excellent serve with in particular fifteen aces (55.4% of first serves) and above all 84.8% of points earned on his first shot to win his first WTA 250 final.
Average start to the year for Garcia
For Caroline Garcia, who had already faced Parks in 2021 in Cincinnati for a difficult victory in three sets 6-3, 1-6, 6-3, the start of the year is quite average. She lost in January in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open against the Swiss Belinda Bencic.
This time, the Lyonnaise, despite a public completely committed to her cause at the Palais des sports de Gerland, missed the opportunity to win her twelfth title on the WTA circuit and the first in Lyon, the tournament for which she is an ambassador and shareholder, created in 2020.
In 2022, she lost there in the semi-final against the future winner, the Chinese Shuai Zhang. This year, she could not go to the end while she remained the sole seed of the event at the time of the semi-finals on Saturday.