Caroline Garcia’s strategy of playing inside the baseline during the opponent’s serve backfired against Danielle Collins. On her farewell tour, Collins overcame Garcia 6-3 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the Miami Open. But was it Garcia’s stubbornness that cost her the match and a chance to win a fourth WTA 1000 title?

The American, Collins scored a straight 22 winners without losing one break point, highlighting her dominance. Former WTA Pro Andrea Petkovic shared her perspective on Caroline Garcia‘s humbling at the hands of Collins and revealed interesting insights from the match around the French player’s tactics.

‘Her coach screamed at her’ Petkovic on how Garcia’s coach tried to change the game for her

Petkovic appeared with Serena Williams’s former coach Rennae Stubbs on the RACQUET’S RENNAE STUBBS TENNIS PODCAST. On the podcast, she opened up on Garcia’s tactics during the encounter against Collins which cost her the match. Petkovic said, “In the match against Danielle Collins she won only one single point on Danielle’s first serve. One single point the entire match and her coach before that point she won, her coach got up and screamed at her, ‘Go back a step. Go F***ing back.’ She took a step back, made the return, she won the point, and then she went back to the baseline and lost the next twenty-seven points for the serve that Danielle played.”

Petkovic elaborated that Caroline Garcia’s performance was “frustrating” because she is the best server on the WTA Tour alongside Elena Rybakina and both players are ranked one and two in every single serve department. But the story is different when it comes to return.

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Petkovic pointed out, “Return, Garcia is ranked outside the top 100,” to the surprise of Stubbs. She continued, “I swear to God, we were looking at these stats… We couldn’t believe our eyes, she is ranked 104 in returns that’s on first serve points won and she is ranked 97 on second return points won for the last six months. And she refuses to take a step back.”

Garcia prefers playing inside the baseline no matter if it’s a first serve or second of her opponent. This tactic could be employed to put pressure on opponents by getting the ball back quickly. But coming up against opponents with a good serve, this can lead to weak or misplaced returns.

During the conversation, Petkovic also added, “If you are standing there and you’re winning points and ranked in the top 20 and this is the way you play, more power to you. But you are a top-20 player who can barely make a return game. You have to ask yourself what is happening.” Petkovic also dived into the reason why Garcia is adamant about her style of play.

She said, “The thing with her is, and that’s her problem, she still wins matches. As I just mentioned she is one of the best servers in the world. And if somehow she gets to a breakpoint and her positioning is threatening and somebody serves a double fault, she will win the match. You will see she will often time win matches, 6-3,6-4, one break each. However, the problem is, this type of player has never gone further than quarterfinals in a Grand Slam tournament. Why is that?” or maybe she made semis at the US Open once.”

Caroline Garcia’s decision led her to defeat at the Miami Open tournament. If she had listened to her coach as mentioned by Petkovic, it is possible she might have been on the opposite side of the line where Collins stands now.

Snippets from Caroline Garcia’s defeat against Danielle Collins at the Miami Open tournament

American WTA pro defeated Garcia on her way to winning the Miami Open. The score of 6-3, 6-2 tells that Garcia didn’t have an impressive game against Collins. Collins played aggressively from the beginning and managed a perfect first set. In the first set, when Garcia was almost bending down against Colins by 4-3, Collins showered more skills to serve perfectly to bag the victory.

In the second set, Garcia already had a setback as Collins swept her by 3-1 since the beginning of this next set. After that, Garcia couldn’t manage to gain any lead against Collins and lost the match.

Andrea Petkovic’s analysis of Caroline Garcia highlights raises valid concerns as to why a player of Garcia’s talent has a Grand Slam success missing from her resume.

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