US Open: Misfiring Caroline Garcia stunned by qualifier Wang, exits in first round

Caroline Garcia’s miserable season continued with a shock first-round loss to Chinese qualifier Yafan Wang, who beat the Frenchwoman 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the second round of the US Open.

It was a poor performance from the French No 1, and marks the nadir of a wretched season throughout which Garcia has consistently struggled for form.

Garcia becomes the second top 10 player in as many days to exit the tournament, after Greece’s Maria Sakkari fell to Masarova on the opening day of action.

Garcia’s ranking set to suffer after a poor North American campaign

A semi-finalist at Flushing Meadows last year, Garcia now faces the prospect of a large drop-off in ranking points. This comes hot on the heels of an early exit at Cincinnati two weeks ago, a tournament she won in 2022.

With such a stellar US hard-court swing last summer followed by such a poor showing in 2023, Garcia’s ranking will suffer.

Perhaps more immediately concerning for the WTA Finals champion, however, is how she arrests such an alarmingly poor run of form in time to salvage something positive from this season.

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Garcia has lost in the first round of four out of the five tournaments she has played on the North American hard-court swing this year.

That comes after failing to get past the fourth round of any major this year – with second and third-round exits at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon respectively – and having failed to land a title all season.

Poor performance likely to trigger questions about Garcia’s set-up

Garcia’s performance today had an air of desperation about it, as she failed to earn a single break of her opponent’s serve – having only generated three break points in the whole match.

Statistically, the world No 7 was outplayed in nearly every department by an opponent who is ranked 114th in the world.

It was the sort of performance that should set off alarm bells for Caroline Garcia and her team. It would be of great surprise if the Frenchwoman did not make some significant changes to her set-up over the coming months to address such a concerning drop-off in form.

For Wang, this is by far the biggest win of her career and she deserves plaudits for keeping her composure in the face of such a momentous scalp.

Wang will now face British No 1 Katie Boulter for a place in the third round.

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New York (Grand Slam), other first-round results (USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, hard, USD 44.700.000, most recent results first):

• Maryna Zanevska vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Greet Minnen vs. Venus Williams
• Ana Bogdan vs. Sofia Kenin
• Anna Blinkova vs. Jodie Burrage
• Sachia Vickery vs. Donna Vekic
• Lucia Bronzetti vs. Barbora Krejcikova
• Robin Montgomery vs. Eva Lys
• Barbora Strycova vs. Kaia Kanepi
• Qinwen Zheng vs. Nadia Podoroska
• Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Fiona Crawley
• Clara Tauson vs. Anastasia Potapova
• Karolina Pliskova vs. Elena-Gabriela Ruse
• Elsa Jacquemot vs. Lesia Tsurenko
• Daria Kasatkina vs. Alycia Parks
• Patricia Maria Tig vs. Rebecca Marino
• Elina Svitolina vs. Anna-Lena Friedsam
• Peyton Stearns vs. Viktoriya Tomova: tuesday
• Caroline Dolehide vs. Clara Burel: tuesday
• Yanina Wickmayer vs. Vera Zvonareva: tuesday
• Camila Giorgi vs. Jessica Pegula: tuesday
• Marketa Vondrousova (9) beat Na-Lae Han (Q): 6-3, 6-0
• Petra Martic beat Tatjana Maria: 6-2, 6-1
• Arantxa Rus vs. Madison Keys: tuesday
• Martina Trevisan vs. Yulia Putintseva: tuesday
• Marie Bouzkova (31) beat Ashlyn Krueger (WC): 7-5, 6-4
• Linda Noskova beat Madison Brengle: 6-2, 6-1
• Ons Jabeur (5) beat Camila Osorio: 7-5, 7-6 (4)
• Tamara Korpatsch beat Irina-Camelia Begu: 6-3, 6-2
• Liudmila Samsonova (14) beat Claire Liu: 7-6 (3), 6-3
• Ekaterina Alexandrova (22) beat Leylah Fernandez: 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-4
• Katie Boulter beat Diane Parry: 6-4, 6-0
• Caroline Wozniacki (WC) beat Tatiana Prozorova (Q): 6-3, 6-2
• Magda Linette (24) beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich: 6-3, 6-1
• Sorana Cirstea (30) beat Kayla Day (WC): 6-2, 6-3
• Mirra Andreeva beat Olivia Gadecki (Q): 1-6, 6-3, 6-4
• Coco Gauff (6) beat Laura Siegemund (Q): 3-6, 6-2, 6-4
• Petra Kvitova (11) beat Cristina Bucsa: 6-1, 7-6 (5)
• Jelena Ostapenko (20) beat Jasmine Paolini: 6-2, 4-6, 6-1
• Elina Avanesyan beat Alize Cornet: 6-2, 1-6, 6-4
• Anna Kalinskaya beat Katerina Siniakova: 6-4, 6-2
• Elise Mertens (32) beat Mirjam Bjorklund (Q): 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3)
• Ajla Tomljanovic beat Panna Udvardy: 3-6, 6-2, 6-4
• Xiyu Wang beat Viktoria Hruncakova (LL): 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6)
• Jennifer Brady beat Kimberly Birrell (LL): 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Lin Zhu beat Mayar Sherif: 6-3, 7-5
• Kaja Juvan (Q) beat Elisabetta Cocciaretto (29): 6-2, 7-5
• Xinyu Wang beat Katie Volynets (Q): 6-3, 6-4
• Elena Rybakina (4) beat Marta Kostyuk: 6-2, 6-1
• Yuriko Miyazaki (Q) beat Margarita Betova: 6-3, 6-3
• Danielle Collins beat Linda Fruhvirtova: 6-2, 6-0
• Bernarda Pera beat Veronika Kudermetova (16): 7-5, 6-4
• Sara Sorribes Tormo beat Anhelina Kalinina (28): 6-4, 7-5
• Beatriz Haddad Maia (19) beat Sloane Stephens: 6-2, 5-7, 6-4
• Lauren Davis beat Danka Kovinic: 6-2, 6-2
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Rebecca Peterson: 6-0, 6-1
• Rebeka Masarova beat Maria Sakkari (8): 6-4, 6-4
• Anna Karolina Schmiedlova beat Kateryna Baindl: 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
• Taylor Townsend beat Varvara Gracheva: 6-4, 6-2
• Magdalena Frech beat Emma Navarro: 7-6 (10), 1-6, 6-2
• Karolina Muchova (10) beat Storm Hunter (WC): 6-4, 6-0
• Belinda Bencic (15) beat Kamilla Rakhimova: 6-2, 6-4
• Victoria Azarenka (18) beat Fiona Ferro (WC): 6-1, 6-2
• Daria Saville beat Clervie Ngounoue (WC): 6-0, 6-2