(Reuters) – France’s Caroline Garcia won 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 cap a serving masterclass and earn her fourth title of the year.
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 deuce game to seal the win.
The 29-year-old was ranked outside the top 70 in mid-June but has since won four titles, made the semi-finals of the U.S. Open and will now rise to a career-high number four.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
