The last time Fort Worth witnessed a comparable display of sharpshooting, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were still in town. Almost a century and a half on, when the dust finally settled on a blazing exchange of thunderous serves and scorching winners, it was Caroline Garcia who emerged as the gunslinger par excellence at the WTA Finals, the 29-year-old Frenchwoman claiming the biggest title of her career with a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 victory over Aryna Sabalenka.
It seems unimaginable now that Garcia was ranked 79th in the world as recently as May. Her journey since that nadir, which followed an extended break from the tour to recover from a nagging foot injury, has been remarkable. Three titles on three different surfaces, a first grand slam semi-final at the US Open, a return to the top 10 – and now, finally, a victory commensurate with the lavish talent that once saw Andy Murray tip her as a future world No 1.
Garcia may yet fulfil that prediction. She ends the year ranked fourth, matching the career-best mark she first achieved after a late-season flourish in 2017, but the foundations feel firmer this time around, not least because her success has been built over months rather than weeks. She remains 6,710 points behind Iga Swiatek at the top of the rankings but, with only 500 points to defend in the first half of next season, there is every chance Garcia can make up ground if she can sustain her current momentum.
It also helps that she has greater clarity now. Garcia’s game style, based on all-out attack, requires total conviction and unwavering focus – areas in which Bertrand Perret, the French coach who joined her team at the end of last season, oversaw significant improvements before his abrupt departure last month. Many wondered how Garcia would fare in her compatriot’s absence, yet the early signs are that the lessons learned have stuck. The mental fortitude she showed to navigate the group stage, where she bounced back from a resounding loss against Swiatek to win an all-or-nothing showdown with Daria Kasatkina, bodes well for the challenges that lie ahead.
“Sometimes there is a big fight, so you have find your way through it,” said Garcia, who came within two points of defeat against Kasatkina. “That was one of the biggest points I improved. That’s also one point that Bertrand was really careful [to emphasise] and putting a lot of intention about it.
“It was pretty obvious that every time, when I was starting to talk and complain and say ridiculous things on court, it was not really going my way. I was losing a lot of energy, I was losing focus. And every single time when things were not easy or not going my way but I was able to stay quiet, not say a word and really focus on the next point, I made some great comebacks.”
Against Sabalenka, Garcia’s concentration was absolute. In a battle between two of the biggest servers in the women’s game, it could not have been otherwise. Garcia did not face a break point throughout and Sabalenka was barely less dominant. Her only wobbly moments on serve came in the first-set tiebreak, where she double-faulted twice, and at the start of the second set, when a momentary lapse of focus saw her net a volley after she was caught in no-man’s-land. Garcia, as inspired as she was clinical, ripped a winning forehand return, and the Belarusian’s fate was all but sealed.
“I just dropped my level for a little bit in the tiebreak and in the first game of the second set, and that’s it, that was the key,” said Sabalenka, who sat sobbing in her chair with a towel over her head after the final point.
As the 24-year-old later acknowledged, however, progress has been made this season. Sabalenka, who had previously described her qualification for the finals as “a miracle”, has come an awfully long way since the dark days of January, when she hit 21 double faults against Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson in Adelaide as her serve utterly deserted her. The improvements have been partly technical – her work with Gavin MacMillan, a biomechanics expert, reaped dividends at the US Open, where she matched last year’s semi-final run – but predominantly mental.
“During the beginning of this season I was thinking, like, ‘What did I do wrong in life, why is [it] killing me every time, like why, why, just why?’” said Sabalenka, who finishes the year ranked fifth, after her semi-final win over Swiatek.
“After how the season [went], I changed my mentality, I was like, ‘OK, thank you, it’s really making me stronger.’ I used to think that this is the worst season but actually, looking back, I think it is the best season because it makes me a really strong person, it makes me really tough.”
Sabalenka’s mental strength contributed to a compelling final in which no quarter was given by either woman. So often betrayed by her chief weapon this year, Sabalenka was no more inclined to adopt a safety-first strategy on serve than Garcia was to curb her ultra-aggressive return stance. It made for a thrilling spectacle, one that made a mockery of the curious decision to use the same regular duty Wilson balls that caused Swiatek such consternation over the US Open series. As the players hurled thunderbolts at each other, one wondered what exactly it is that tournament organisers are trying to protect these extraordinary athletes from.
Garcia’s victory marks a suitably unexpected conclusion to a season that has seen Ashleigh Barty retire, Elena Rybakina come from left field to win Wimbledon, and Swiatek, ranked ninth in January, emerge as a dominant world No 1. It remains to be seen whether Garcia can wrest that mantle from the Pole in 2023 – witness the inability of Garbiñe Muguruza to live up to the promise of her similarly renascent title run at last year’s WTA Finals. On this evidence, though, it will be fun to watch her try.