Garcia Routs Podoroska, Secures French Win Against Argentina

WTA Finals champion Caroline Garcia kicked off the new season as she had left off the last one: in phenomenal form. The World No.4 dispatched Nadia Podoroska 6-2, 6-0 in just 64 minutes on Friday to give France an unassailable 3-0 lead over Argentina in the United Cup.

Garcia had only conceded three games against Podoroska in their sole previous meeting, in the second round of Monterrey 2017, and went one better this time as she racked up 24 winners in just 14 games.

Podoroska had a rough start to the match, with two foot faults contributing to a pair of double faults in the opening game the second down break point. Garcia needed little help to impose her swashbuckling strategy on the Argentinian, though.

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Swarming the net at every opportunity, including straight off several returns, the 29-year-old won 18 out of 24 points in the forecourt. She conceded only two points behind her first serve and never faced a break point.

Former Roland Garros semifinalist Podoroska, who was sidelined due to injury for 10 months between 2021 and mid-2022, needed to battle hard just to get two games -- both requiring break point saves -- on the board. Garcia went from strength to strength as she raced towards the finishing line, finding clean winners to seal all four of her service breaks in the second set and hammering away a smash in style on her first match point.

Garcia's win means that France have wrapped up victory in their first tie without dropping a set. Indeed, following Day 1's straight-sets wins from Alizé Cornet and Arthur Rinderknech, the French team have only dropped 11 games over the first three rubbers.

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"I felt very good," said Garcia afterwards. "It's never easy to start a new season, and it's a new format of competition. I wanted to play well for myself, to put my game together after a good few weeks of practice, but competition is always different. Obviously beyond that I wanted to help my team to win the tie, so I'm very happy with my performance."

Victory was also sweet due to reversing the result of the FIFA World Cup final earlier this month, in which Argentina defeated France on penalties.

"We all wanted to have our little revenge," said Garcia. "But my coach [Juan Pablo Guzman], who is Argentinian, wearing the France T-shirt was pretty funny."