“That was really the mentality: keep going that way and it will pay off one day” – Caroline Garcia after biggest title of career
No player has won more matches on the WTA Tour since June 2022 than Caroline Garcia, who puts it down to sticking with her new style of play even when the chips were down
Caroline Garcia at the 2022 WTA Finals Fort Worth tennis tournament
Image Credit: Zuma / Panoramic
Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia says that she and her team focussed on changing her style of play to make it more aggressive and stuck with it even when it did not work with a focus on the long-term.
That mentality and discipline saw Garcia claim the biggest title of her career on Monday night as she defeated Aryna Sabalenka 7-6, 6-4 to win the WTA Finals in Fort Worth, Texas. The win made her only the second Frenchwoman to triumph at the season-ending WTA Finals (after Amelie Mauresmo in 2005), and only the fourth player aged 29 or above to win the season-ending finale (the others being Martina Navratilova in 1986, Jana Novotna in 1997 and Serena Williams in 2012, 2013, 2014).
“I think this year there were so many lessons and so many experiences. It started okay, I got some good wins here and there but couldn’t manage to back them up with some other good wins,” Garcia said in an interview to the Tennis Channel. “My team behind me were really focused on which way we wanted to play, how we wanted to play, and it was not paying off all the time, but they told me that if I kept going in that way it will pay off one day or another, so that was really the mentality: keep going that way and it will pay off one day. I’m not really sure we were thinking it was going to pay off that much actually, but I definitely like it. It’s everyday work. Sometimes it’s tough, but you can learn from everything.”
Garcia added that she wants to keep improving rather than stagnating and this time around she is enjoying the process a lot more than she did a few years ago when she cracked the top 5 for the first time.
““I think it’s super important to keep improving. You know, we said ‘If you don’t move forward, you move backward.’ So that’s not something we want to do in the team and I don’t want to do it, either. I did it a couple years ago, and didn’t really enjoy the ride. I think obviously today was a very solid match. Few mistakes here and there but not so many negative points. But in the other match against Iga, there are obviously things I can still improve. And it’s a challenge, you always want to challenge yourself first in the sport and then in tennis you have another challenge to face against the other ones.”
“I’m just really proud of the way I kept my mind calm and really focused one point at a time, one game at a time” – Caroline Garcia
Caroline Garcia was on fire on Monday night as she did not face a single break point against her serve during the one hour and 41-minute contest. The Frenchwoman said she was also proud her performance as she was able to stay focused and calm throughout the final.
““I’m just really proud of the way I kept my mind calm and really focused one point at a time, one game at a time,” she said. “In the second set, I got the break super early, but obviously there was still very long to go, I felt like I played three sets to play one set. But I was able to manage my emotions and be focused one point at a time and it makes a difference.”
“I really try to go with what I do the best. So obviously being aggressive and going for my shots. We had a great capability with the team to really adjust to the different surfaces to physically feel good on every surface. And it was really important. And we prepared very well for every tournament to be really focused on what I wanted to do. And with the results coming it was obviously easier to believe in it. And in this tournament, I think from one match to another I really played better and better.”
