WTA Rouen: Caroline Garcia vs Elisabetta Cocciaretto; Preview, Head-to-Head, Prediction

Caroline Garcia takes on Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto at the first round of the Open de Rouen in just a few hours from now. Both of them had a decent start to their season this year. But it will be interesting to see whether the 30-year-old French tennis star can ace her aces against the 23-year-old rival from Italy. 

Serving is one of the lethal weapons of Caroline Garcia. She hit the most number of aces in the WTA Tour in the last two seasons. While Elisabetta Cocciaretto has also played some of her best tennis on the clay court. In fact, she also became the Italian number one women’s tennis player in 2023. Can she upset Garcia in front of her home fans in Rouen?

Caroline Garcia vs Elisabetta Cocciaretto: Preview

Injury could be the biggest concerning factor for all the fans of Caroline Garcia ahead of this exciting faceoff. She was seen struggling a bit with her shoulder during her recent defeat to Emma Raducanu at the BJK Cup qualifiers. Raducanu defeated her by 3-6,6-3,6-2 in that match. Garcia would now look forward to getting back to her winning ways after that disappointing loss against the Brit.

But if we look at her results in 2024, Caroline Garcia reached the QF of the Miami Open at the end of March. But she was defeated by the eventual champion of Miami, Danielle Collins by 3-6,2-6. In that match, she could only fire 2 aces but didn’t commit a single double fault against the American. Her win percentage on the first serve was 59% and on the second serve, it was 53%. Garcia won 5 of her service games against Danielle Collins. 

Caroline Garcia has managed to hit 123 aces so far this season and committed 46 double faults. According to her overall stats for the 2024 season, Garcia has won 77% of her service games compared to only 21.2% of her return games. She has managed to win 71.4% of her first serves this year. The French tennis star will surely love to bank on her lethal weapon to get through this contest against Cocciaretto.

Elisabetta Cocciaretto on the other hand, is quite a stubborn opponent and she won’t give up easily against this home-favorite. She won the LTP Charleston Pro Tennis competition this year by defeating Russia’s Diana Shnaider by 6-3,6-2. But in her previous match at the Charleston Open, Cocciaretto was defeated by the former world no.1 tennis star, Victoria Azarenka by 1-6,2-6 in the second round.

She couldn’t hit a single ace in that match and committed one double fault against Azarenka. Elisabetta Cocciaretto won 57% of her first serve and 20% of her second serve in that game. But could only manage to win 2 service games throughout the match. Will the serve be the deciding factor in this thrilling contest? Well, let us take a glimpse of what happened in the best between these two tennis stars.

Garcia vs Cocciaretto: Head-to-Head

Both the players have met each other thrice on the tour so far. Currently, Caroline Garcia has a clean 3-0 sweep over the Italian in the H2H. They had first met each other in Rome in 2021, where Garcia defeated Cocciaretto by 7-6(8), 6-2 in the R64. After that, a year later they crossed paths yet again in Palermo. In that match, it took three sets for the French tennis star to overcome her Italian hurdle in the R16.

However, their last meeting was in a neutral venue as they took on each other yet again in 2022 at the Poland Open. In the R16 match, Garcia defeated Cocciaretto by 6-3,7-5. Carolina Garcia fired 6 aces compared to nil of Cocciaretto in that match. Now, Elisabetta Cocciaretto will take on Garcia on French soil. What will the outcome of this match be?

Prediction: Garcia to win this match in two sets

Caroline Garcia and Elisabetta Cocciaretto have never competed in this tournament before. So, it’ll be unfamiliar territory for both the players, but the home support for Garcia can also play a huge role in putting additional pressure on the young Italian. Cocciaretto has had some of her performances on the ITF Tour but she has struggled against WTA Tour-level opponents this year.

Garcia is a former world number 4 and she has even reached the QF of the French Open in 2017. She currently has a win-loss record of 9-8 this season. This includes some of her stellar performances against the WTA stars this year. While Elisabetta Cocciaretto reached the third round of the French Open in 2023. She is currently ranked 32 places behind Garcia. She has managed to pull out 14 wins out of all the encounters that she has played so far this season. 

Cocciaretto hit 47 aces last year, and so far this season she has managed to hit only 15. So, the one with the most number of aces is surely going to win the race in Rouen this time around as well.