The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Puig pushes through to semis
Qualifier knocks off No. 2 seed Garcia in three sets
NEW HAVEN — The closer she got to a big win Thursday evening on Stadium Court, the more the cheers rang out. Those fans will have at least one more chance to cheer for her on Friday night.
Monica Puig knocked off second-seeded Caroline Garcia 7-5, 1-6, 6-2 in the Connecticut Open quarterfinals, sending her to her first WTA Tour semifinal in 10 months.
“It feels really good, especially with the U.S. Open around the corner” next week, Puig said on the court after her win, “and being here in New Haven with a lot of Puerto Ricans in the crowd.”
Naturally, they cheered one more time for the 24year-old born in San Juan. They’d cheered as a crosscourt backhand winner helped her come back to win the first set. And they’d cheered as she rolled through the third.
Garcia took a medical time out near the end of the first set, getting attention to her right arm. A trainer wrapped it just below her right elbow.
And though Puig served out the first set, Garcia could do little wrong in the second.
“She was also playing really solid. Her ball isn’t easy to get back. She plays very aggressive, really deep in the court,” Puig said.
“The first set was very tough. The second set, she started playing better, but I felt like I made some crucial mistakes. I wasn’t there in the second set, and that really cost me. In the third set, I had to step up my game, or if not, it was going to go just like the second set.”
Puig is ranked 72nd after missing time to a hip injury and then a strained quadriceps earlier this season, and she had to go through qualifying to make this tournament. She won the Central American and Caribbean Games gold medal in July, which she said helped get the rust off.
Puig will meet Carla Suarez Navarro, who advanced when three-time tournament champion Petra Kvitova retired with an injury after the first set of their quarterfinal Thursday night.
Fans can use a discount code, CO18MONICA, to purchase discounted tickets for Puig’s match, with a portion of the proceeds going to Puig’s efforts for Hurricane Maria relief in Puerto Rico.
The other semifinal, Friday at 3 p.m., pits fifthseeded Julia Goerges, who defeated Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 6-2, against Aryna Sabalenka, who topped Belinda Bencic 6-3, 6-2.
“It’s not about always playing semis, finals, I think it’s about how I feel, myself, on the court,” Goerges said. “I definitely feel very well and that the work
is paying off.”
Goerges, fifth-seeded here and ranked ninth in the world, will be seeking a spot in her third final of the season.
Sabalenka beat her the only time they’ve met. That was in three sets at Eastbourne, England, on the way to one of Sabalenka’s two finals this season.
Sabalenka has yet to win a WTA Tour title, but she has made a semifinal for the second week in a row. She lost to No. 1 Simona Halep last week in Cincinnati.
“Yeah, it’s of course (helping) me because to play against that kind of players, it’s always giving you more power. You start to understand more about tennis,” Sabalenka said.
It’s been a breakout year for the 20-year-old from Belarus, who was ranked 78th at the end of last year and is up to 25th now.
“I hope it will keep going like this. But you never know,” Sabalenka said.
One of the top players on tour on second serves, Goerges won 69 percent of her second serves in the first set against Makarova, 57 percent in all.
“There are always points where you need to adjust, where you get a lefty serve, lefty balls from the baseline,” Goerges said. “I talked a lot about tactics with my coach since I’d never beaten Katya, so for me it was important to change things up. I think we did a very good job as a team there.”
Hsieh Su-Wei and Laura Siegemund won their doubles quarterfinal in three sets, then got a free ride to Saturday’s final when Karolina Pliskova withdrew, citing a right-shoulder injury. Pliskova, who lost to Makarova as the fourth seed in singles on Monday, and twin sister Kristyna won a quarterfinal doubles match late Wednesday.
Alicja Rosolska and Abigail Spears defeated Kiki Bertens (who withdrew from singles competition on Tuesday) and Johanna Larsson in three sets in the day’s other doubles quarterfinal. They’ll advance to meet top seed Andrea Sestini Hlavackova and Barbora Strycova in the semis Friday at 12:30 p.m.