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Caroline Garcia earned the biggest title of her career, winning the 2022 WTA Finals in Fort Worth, Texas. The Frenchwoman bagged an all-important win over Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka in the summit clash to become the second player from the country to win the prestigious title since Amelie Mauresmo in 2005.
Garcia, who lost to World No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the group stage, earned wins over Coco Gauff and Daria Kasatkina to secure a semi-final berth, where she subdued Maria Sakkari to set up the final encounter against Sabalenka, who outclassed Swiatek to make the final.
Dishing out 11 aces, Caroline Garcia maintained an exceptional service game throughout the final match and did not face a single break point in her bid for the trophy. After a tough opening set that concluded in favor of Garcia in the tie-break, the 29-year-old banked on the momentum and gained an early advantage in the second set as a discomposed Aryna Sabalenka fell short in her first game. The Frenchwoman continued her dominant form to win her 11th career title with a score of 7-6(4), 6-4. Notably, Garcia has remained unbeaten in finals this year and the WTA Finals is her fourth title of 2022.
Watch her celebration here:
"It will pay off one day or another" - Caroline Garcia on her mentality throughout 2022
At 29 years of age, Caroline Garcia has had the best season of her career so far. The Frenchwoman started her year as the World No. 74, having witnessed a couple of uncharacteristic seasons. Things, however, started looking bright for Garcia after she found her rhythm at the 2022 French Open, where she won the doubles title with compatriot Kristina Mladenovic.
Garcia soon improved her form in singles and claimed her first title of 2022 at the Bad Homburg Open. She further won the Poland Open title and the WTA 1000 Cincinnati Open, before featuring in the semifinals of the US Open. Her latest title win at the WTA Finals has assured Garcia a climb to her previous career-high ranking of World No. 4 in 2018.
Speaking about her spectacular season, Caroline Garcia admitted that she learned many lessons and grew through her experiences. She revealed that her mentality was to keep going in the right direction and believe that the results would follow.
"I think this year (there were) so many lessons, so many experiences. Starts ok. I got some good wins here and there, but couldn’t manage to back them up with some other good wins. But my team behind me were really focused on which way we wanted to play, how we wanted to play, and it was not paying off all the time, but they told me if I kept going in that way, it will pay off one day or another, so that was really the mentality. I am not too sure we were thinking it was going to pay that much that early, but I definitely like it," Garcia said during a post-match interview with Tennis Channel.
