Caroline Garcia defeats Aryna Sabalenka to clinch WTA Finals title

France’s Caroline Garcia produced a stunning performance on Monday as she defeated Aryna Sabalenka to clinch the season-ending WTA Finals crown here in Texas.
Garcia played a superb service game to overpower her Belarusian opponent 7-6 (7/4), 6-4, at Fort Worth, Texas. “It’s definitely a lot of giant happiness. A crazy final, with a lot of intensity on every point. I’m just really proud of the work we did throughout the year. It was a great match—they really went for it. I’m really happy to win my biggest title,” Garcia said in her post-match press conference.
“Just very happy about the mindset, to be really calm at every moment. 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,” she said.
“I just dropped my level for a little bit. On the tiebreak and the first game of the second set. That’s it. I did my best, [but] she played unbelievable tennis,” Sabalenka said in her post-match press conference.
Garcia, the 29-year-old from France, won all of the finals she played this year and, going back six years, eight of nine.
Garcia, too, was moved by the match. She’ll finish the year at No. 4, equaling her career best.
“Sometimes you are emotional or things don’t go your way. I mean, sometimes there is a big fight, so you have to find your way through it. Some points, where you cannot do anything. You just try to put in the return and to run as fast as you can to the other side. And that was one of the biggest points I improved. Today one of the most important things was to stay calm and jump on every opportunity,” Garcia said.