Australian Open: Pair and Garcia eliminated, towards a tricolor fiasco?

It smells of failure. The four Tricolores vying for this third day in Melbourne (2nd round) - Benoît Paire, Grégoire Barrère, Caroline Garcia and Fiona Ferro - all lost and there are only four left of the eighteen entered. If Gaël Monfils (n ° 10), Gilles Simon (n ° 61), Pierre-Hugues Herbert (n ° 64) and Alizé Cornet (n ° 61) fall respectively against Ivo Karlovic (n ° 124), David Goffin (n ° 11), Nick Kyrgios (n ° 26) and Donna Vekic (n ° 20), this Thursday, there will be no more Habs in the round of 16. Unheard of since 1981.

The strong wind, which however did not destabilize the defending champions Naomi Osaka and Novak Djokovic, nor the world n ° 1 Ashleigh Barty, respectively winners of the Chinese Saisai Zheng (6-2, 6-4), of the Japanese Tatsuma Ito (6-1, 6-4, 6-2) and the Slovenian Polona Hercog (6-1, 6-4), did he disturb Caroline Garcia (n ° 46)? After a fanfare start, the French lost the game against the Tunisian Ons Jabeur (78th) and lost 1-6, 6-1, 6-3.

"At the end of last year I regressed physically," she explained. I dropped a lot and compared to my game, I need a lot of intensity, to be very fast on my legs. It is a work in progress. Garcia has not crossed the second round of a Grand Slam tournament since the Australian Open last year, where she lost in the third round.

Pair angry with the organization

Benoît Paire (21st), who disappeared in the 1st round last year, did not cross the second step either: after a marathon match the day before, he lost to the super tie-break of the 5th set against Marin Cilic (39th) 2-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-3, 1-6, 6-7 (3/10) after a spectacular match of 3:36.

“I was a finalist last week ( Editor's note: Saturday in Auckland ), I play 3:30 yesterday, I don't even have 24 hours of rest and I already play against Cilic… Give us at least a little time and put us in night session! We protect the best but we must also protect those who played well the weeks before. I too am the seed. I think, at some point, that I deserve it. "

Grégoire Barrère (n ° 84), who was competing for the first time in the main draw, was stopped by the Argentinian Guido Pella (25th) 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, and Fiona Ferro ( No. 63) was sharply eliminated by China's Qiang Wang (29th) 6-1, 6-2. A bad day.