Caroline Garcia pleased with ‘incredible atmosphere’ at French Open after first-round victory over Wang Xiyu

Caroline Garcia celebrated her 7-6(7-4) 4-6 6-4 victory over Wang Xiyu which she earned in her home country.

Garcia, the French women’s No. 1 player, secured a passage to the second round, in a battle against the Chinese player that took more than two and a half hours on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

The Frenchwoman is seeded No. 5 at Roland-Garros, and she praised her opponent after the match.

“It was just a question of a few points here and there,” Garcia said to the French media. “She has lots of things she does well. She has a good game that’s very aggressive. I had to keep calm and seize the very few opportunities that I had.

“I’m very happy, very happy about my attitude. I was calm. I was positive. This was something I wasn’t really good at in the recent past. I seized these opportunities here and there. It was an incredible atmosphere.”

Garcia was pushed hard from the beginning, and the first set took almost an hour, but was broken in the second set as she saw the scores levelled at one set all.

The 29-year-old has a strong record in the first round here, having won each of her last eight matches at the venue.

Her next match will be against Anna Blinkova, who was the runner-up at Strasbourg last week. Blinkova defeated Ysaline Bonaventure 6-2 6-0 in her first round match.

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