Daily Times

FORT WORTH: France’s Caroline Garcia scored the biggest victory of her career with a straight-sets defeat of Aryna Sabalenka to win the season-ending WTA Finals on Monday. Garcia relied on a superb service game to overpower her Belarusian opponent 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 at Fort Worth, Texas. The 29-year-old from Lyon is only the second French player to win the WTA title after Amelie Mauresmo in 2005. “It’s definitely a lot of giant happiness,” Garcia said after a win that will see her pocket $1.57 million in prize money and 1,375 rankings points. With both sixth-seeded Garcia and seventh-seeded Sabalenka serving beautifully throughout, Monday’s final was settled by the finest of margins. Garcia seized the initiative in the first set tie-break after both women had held to get it 6-6. Remarkably, neither player conceded a break point during a hard-fought first set. But the question of who would blink first was answered in the breaker as Sabalenka’s composure suddenly deserted her. A wayward Sabalenka backhand return plopped into the net to give Garcia a 4/2 lead in the tie-break. On the next point, Sabalenka double-faulted to hand the Frenchwoman a 5/2 lead. Garcia brought up four set points with an ace for a 6/2 lead.

Although Sabalenka recovered to win the next two points, she double-faulted again to hand Garcia the set. A clearly rattled Sabalenka was soon in trouble in the second set, suffering a break on the first game after Garcia drilled a winner up the line. That break proved decisive as Garcia never looked like surrendering the initiative, holding for the remainder of the set before serving for the match at 5-4. She earned her first match point when Sabalenka yanked a backhand return wide for a 40-30 lead. Although Sabalenka saved that match point with a backhand down the line, Garcia regained match point with a booming serve before converting on the next point. Garcia said she was pleased with how she handled the pressure at key moments to set up her win. Sabalenka, meanwhile, said momentary lapses had cost her dearly.