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A match that won't lack quality

One of the more interesting matches of the first round should be the one between Petkovic and Garcia. The German recently used the French's bad shape and convincingly beat her in Eastbourne, but Garcia is a lot better this season on hardcourt

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Andrea Petkovic is, without a doubt, glad to return to US Open where she is always met with great support. Even though it's still early to talk, just on practices she had around 50 people who watched her, and everything points to the same thing repeating itself this time. Andrea trained hard, she didn't save herself and she showed a really good game and strong its. Besides, she can't complain of the first round since she recently put Garcia to shame in Eastbourne.

The German did the pre-seson tournaments according to expectations, at least most of them. She disappointed us in Stanford being defeated by Barthel, but Mona had her day and Petkovic didn't stand a chance. After that she had a couple of good wins and the expected defeats by Williams and Halep, players who have a solution for Petkovic's "boring" game. Most of the exchanges she only returns deeper balls by the middle of the court, until she sees a chance. Halep is more consistent than she is at it, and Williams can pierce through her, so those defeats were completely expected.

On the other hand, Garcia fell into a crisis as the grass season started. She was a bliss on hardcourt and she played two finals in a row, but then she unreasonably lost her rhythm. She didn't have problems with injuries, she didn't lose confidence, and there was no obvious reason for her fall. Still, she lost a couple of times in a row, she lost her confidence, and with it her serve security. By returning to hardcourt she gained all of that back. She showed that by beating Kvitova and Lisicki. Recently she managed to take revenge on Bacsinszky in New Haven for all the "stolen" titles in the earlier part of the season, and she once more impressed us with her game. But, all that was in for another disappointment. It was against Woziacki, against whom she is usually great. She failed in all the segments, from the serve to short exchanges. She missed depth in the exchanges, she made too many errors, and it's hard to remember when did Wozniacki get such a number of short balls and attacked herself. Garcia simply offered too much.

Garcia showed both of her sides in USA. One day she's safe on her serve and untouchable in exchanges, and the other she is beyond recognition. Petkovic's game style should have to suit her in these conditions, but it's hard to trust her with all the oscillations. Petkovic has a really good practice week behind her, and with deeper exchanges she should drive the French "crazy".