Garcia edges Kasatkina in a cliffhanger to claim last semi-final spot at WTA Finals

After saving a break point and holding serve through a nearly nine-minute service game to level at four games apiece in the third set, it looked and felt like Caroline Garcia might be in a position to pull away from Daria Kasatkina on Saturday night in Fort Worth. 

In reality, it was far from over.

Kasatkina fought back valiantly in the next game, saving six break points in a marathon ninth game of the third set, which lasted 13 minutes, and eventually pushed the battle a third-set tiebreak.

With pressure building, it was the Frenchwoman who steeled herself and delivered the goods when it mattered most. Garcia converted her second match point to edge Kasatkina, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(5), and book the final semi-final spot at the WTA Finals.

“Today we knew that the winner was going through to the semi-final,” Garcia, who improved to 16-6 in three-setters in 2022, said after the match. “It’s a big achievement. so I really tried to give everything I had. Sometimes it was not always great tennis but I gave all I had.”

Her victory solidifies the final for at the WTA Finals, with Garcia drawing Greek Maria Sakkari in Sunday’s second semi-final – Garcia holds the 2-0 lifetime edge, including a three-set win over Sakkari at Cincinnati this summer.

Semi-finals set in Fort Worth

The last four are officially set for Sunday in fort worth:

[1] Iga Swiatek v [7] Aryna Sabalenka

[5] Maria Sakkari v [6] Caroline Garcia

Garcia – “I gave it all and no regrets”

Garcia becomes the first person to defeat Kasatkina from a set down in 2022. The Russian had won the first 29 matches she had played this season after winning the first set but could not hold off Garcia down the stretch on Saturday.

How did Garcia manage to keep her nerve after that frustrating game in which she squandered six break points?

“I don’t know exactly,” she said. “I tried to keep being very positive, trying to go for my game style –  being aggressive. Every match, we say you have to give it all and no regrets –  go for it. And it’s always true but in this tournament even more. It’s the last one.”

First I do know that’s the best way I play tennis. I cannot play like Dasha, that [would be] disaster.

— Caroline Garcia

The long journey leads back to the last four at WTA Finals

By reaching the semi-finals in Fort Worth, Garcia becomes the fifth player to reach the semi-finals her first two appearances at the WTA Finals since the new round robin format began in 2003.

Her first appearance came in 2017, and the 29-year-old Lyonnaise has encountered many ups and downs since. We must keep in mind that Garcia started 2022 ranked 74 in the world, after several difficult seasons. She has engineered a major late-career renaissance in the last ten months, rediscovering her lethal first-strike tennis, thanks to good health and growing confidence.

Many believed she would have difficulty playing well in Fort Worth after her split with coach Bertrand Perret became public in the week prior. Perret was partially responsible for convincing Garcia to return to her roots as an aggressive, risk-taking tennis player.

Despite Perret’s absence, Garcia has not skipped a beat at these WTA Finals.

“It means a lot,” Garcia said in an interview with Tennis Channel. “First of all, it meant a lot to be back into the top eight and to the masters. It’s been a long journey since 2017. Some tough years, where I tried to learn a lot as a player and as a person. Couple of injuries that keep you out of playing the best and training the way you want so it is like eating your mind, week after week. 

“And now I won my ticket today by going forward with my game. And I won the ticket for the semi-final and it proved to me that even if sometimes you feel tired and you feel it’s not going well, you have to keep going through and it will pay.”

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