Caroline Garcia easily opens the doors to the final

Nothing stops Caroline Garcia. The 29-year-old Lyonnaise easily won a first WTA Masters final for her second appearance, beating Greece’s Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday in Fort Worth, Texas.

The world No.6 is already doing better than in 2017, when she failed in the semi-finals of the event, then defeated by the American Venus Williams. At the time, she arrived in Singapore at the last minute, euphoric after two titles in China, at the WTA 1000 in Wuhan and Beijing. This time, it was in uncertainty, after the unexpected departure of coach Bertrand Perret, that she entered the tournament.

Sakkari regularly pushed to fault

And it is clear that she has found the mental resources to pursue her dream: to become the second Frenchwoman to add her name to the list, after Amélie Mauresmo, who was crowned at the expense of Mary Pierce in 2005, during a final 100% tricolor from another time.

After a solid start against Coco Gauff for her first group match, Garcia, while sometimes playing very good tennis, then fell against world No.1 Iga Swiatek. Facing Sakkari (N.5), against whom she had a slight psychological advantage for having beaten her in their two previous confrontations, Garcia had her most successful match of the tournament. Betting more than ever on her aggressiveness, she constantly put her opponent on the back foot and often at fault. The only time the Frenchman sinned was to confirm her first break in the first set. For the rest he was a lone rider.

Sharp on the return, placed well inside the court, she took advantage of Sakkari’s low first-ball percentage (37%) to win the first set in 35 minutes. She also insisted on the backhand of the Greek, deporting her to better finish her points along the line. Despite a 2h27 struggle as physically and mentally demanding the day before to beat Kasatkina, “Caro” then showed no signs of fatigue. She again stepped on the accelerator in the second set, started with two consecutive breaks to come away 4-0.

A hellish pace

Everything succeeded in this match, like this volley amortized in extension to annihilate a passing yet well executed by Sakkari, who was only to let go of his shots to keep up with the infernal pace imposed by his rival. The Frenchwoman, who lined up the winning shots (21-8), has also been very efficient on serve, with 6 aces to swell her total to 379 this season, an area where she is sure to finish in first place ahead of the Kazakh Elena Rybakina (370).

For “Caro”, being in the final of the Masters is an enormous satisfaction after six difficult last weeks, victim of a phenomenon of decompensation after a flamboyant summer, which had seen her win three titles (Bad Homburg, Warsaw, Cincinnati), before to reach the semis at the US Open.