Garcia Tops Sabalenka To Win WTA Finals Title

Caroline Garcia is flying high. The veteran Frenchwoman collected the biggest title of her career Monday night in Fort Worth, Texas taking the WTA Finals crown defeating Aryna Sabalenka 7-6(5), 6-4.

The 29-year-old Garcia didn’t face a break point on the night en route to her 11th career title and fourth of 2022 (and on four different surfaces!).

“It’s definitely a lot of giant happiness,” Garcia said after. “A crazy final, a lot of intensity on every point. Just really proud of the work we did through all the year. It was a great match. Really went for it. I’m really happy to win my biggest title.”

Sabalenka played well in the the first set before a flurry of errors culminating with a double fault cost her in the breaker. And then Garcia broke quickly at the start of the second and never looked back. Sabalenka was only able to get to deuce twice on the Garcia serve.

“All the negative emotion doesn’t affect me, and that was really a big part of taking the few opportunities I had in the tiebreaker and the first game I broke her in the second,” Garcia added.

Garcia will return to her previous high of No. 4 in the world. She finished last year ranked No. 74. She’ll go into 2023 with plenty of chances to rise higher. This past year she went 2-4 combined at the Australian, Indian Wells, Miami and the French Open; and she didn’t play Madrid or Rome.

Sabalenka ends the season having just reached the biggest final of her career. She also comes off a huge win over world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the semifinals. She finish No. 5 after ending last year No. 2.

“I just dropped my level for a little bit,” Sabalenka lamented. “On the tiebreak and the first game of the second set. That’s it.”

And her serving woes seem to have been put to bed, for now.

“At least going into the next season I don’t have this stupid thing in my mind about my serve. I know I can serve, I know I can hit double faults, I can hit aces and it’s not a big problem because I have a lot of weapons to play with. That’s the great thing about this season,” she said.

Garcia is the second French WTA Finals champions after Amelie Mauresmo in 2005 when she defeated her countrywoman Mary Pierce.

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