France’s Caroline Garcia put on a serving masterclass to claim the biggest title of her career on Monday by defeating Aryna Sabalenka 7-6(4) 6-4 to win the WTA Finals in Fort Worth, Texas.
Garcia covered her face with her hands and fell on her back after a Sabalenka forehand sailed wide on match point to earn her fourth title of the year.
“Today was such an intense final,” a smiling Garcia told Tennis Channel while donning a cowboy hat.
“I’m very proud of how I was able to keep my mind calm and really focus on one point at a time, one game at a time.”
Both players’ thunderous serves were firing early and neither faced a break point in the first set of the final of the season-ending tournament, which features the WTA Tour’s top eight players.
But in the tiebreaker the Belarusian’s second serve, which has bedeviled her at times this season, failed her again – first a costly double fault to fall behind 5-2 and then another on set point.
Garcia kept the pressure on from there, breaking to open the second set and coming through a tense deuce game to seal the win in a match where she fired down 11 aces and never faced a break point.
