For a player once ranked fourth in the world, Caroline Garcia has not always received the appreciation her talent merits. Earlier this week in Cincinnati, Garcia spoke poignantly about the fickle nature of a sport that Andy Murray famously tipped her to dominate, reflecting that recognition lasts only as long as the results keep coming.
It is four years since the Frenchwoman compiled a 13-match winning streak to claim back-to-back WTA 1000 titles in Wuhan and Beijing, and while the injuries and loss of form that followed that career zenith took a toll on her self-belief, they also brought perspective.
That quality was firmly in evidence in Cincinnati, where Garcia defeated Petra Kvitotva 6-2, 6-4 to claim her third title at the highest level of women’s tennis outside the majors, and afterwards thanked the locals simply for knowing her name.
“You know tennis very well,” said Garcia, “so it’s a lot of respect you are showing us. Sometimes people ask for autographs, but they don’t know who we are.”
Within the game, Garcia has always commanded respect. As for recognition, the 28-year-old has become impossible to ignore. With her biggest victory of a stellar summer that has brought a tour-leading 27 main draw wins – and a trio of titles on grass, clay and hard courts – Garcia claimed a slice of history, becoming the first qualifier to win a 1000-level event. Ranked 75th just two months ago, she will head to the US Open as the new world No 17 and an outsider for the title.
No less impressive than the scale of Garcia’s success is the style in which it has been achieved. One of the finest exponents of first-strike tennis in the game, aggression and athleticism are at the heart of everything she does.
Powerful and accurate with her serve, which frequently touches speeds in excess of 115mph, Garcia is barely less lethal off the return, a shot that she boldly takes on from well inside the baseline. It is a high-risk, high-reward style that requires immaculate timing and, crucially, confidence.
“Obviously, playing that game style is not always working,” said Garcia, who leads the tour for aces this season . “You have to have a true belief in it. If not, mistakes are coming quite quickly. You have to go 100%.
“Sometimes I doubted it, because it was not always working. You try to forget about what people are saying, but it’s always coming to your ears one way or another, and sometimes from people who are well known, things like that. So it always affects you.
“I doubted, and then I did it kind of half and half, and it was not working any more. You try to do less unforced errors, you go back, but then you do less winners because you are less inside the court. So it’s not a straight way. It’s not like you know what you have to do.
“Times goes and you realise it’s not working the other way, and you try to change, you try to get people around you who believe in this game style.”
Among those people is Bertrand Perret, the experienced French coach who joined Garcia’s team at the end of last season following a brief spell in which she trained under the Spanish veteran Gabriel Urpi. Garcia had previously been coached solely by her father, Louis Paul, an arrangement that some within the sport questioned because he has no background in the professional game. Perret, however, has reinforced the family’s conviction that Garcia was on the right path all along, encouraging her to remain committed to attack.
It is an approach that Kvitova, who has enjoyed a resurgence of her own this summer, will recognise only too well. The Czech, who won her first title in more than a year on the grass courts of Eastbourne in June, and forged a path to the Cincinnati final after surviving a match point in the opening round, has frequently been at her potent best over the past week.
Kvitova’s naturally aggressive style, perfectly adapted to the quick conditions in Mason, Ohio, carried her past Jabeur and the in-form Madison Keys. But Garcia proved a challenge too far for the 32-year-old as she struggled with an injury to her left leg, and a rival at the peak of her powers.
“There was a song, This Girl is on Fire,” said Kvitova, referring to the Alicia Keys hit played by the stadium DJ after the match. “I was like, ‘This is the best description of her.’
“She is the kind of player who can beat everybody, but also, when she doesn’t have the health confidence and [isn’t] playing the best, because she is playing very risky – I know it from my side actually, as well – she can lose as well with some other players, which normally she could beat.
“It’s my own experience. I think that when she is on, she is on. We saw it the whole tournament this week.”
Kvitova also spoke of the difficulties posed by a rival whose offensive style denies her opponents time and rhythm. Those challenges were apparent from the outset. In the opening game, a signature early return from Garcia caught the former Wimbledon champion flat-footed on the baseline, producing an error that she compounded with a double fault. Presented with a chance to reclaim the break immediately, Kvitova twice sent returns flying beyond the baseline. The pattern of the contest was set.
The numbers tell their own story. While Kvitova saved just one of the four break points she faced, Garcia fended off all eight. Her most notable act of defiance came in the sixth game of the second set.
Kvitova, who had once again dropped serve early after being caught out by the depth and quality of Garcia’s returning, and was struggling to move freely after taking a medical timeout, had decided to go for broke. Her abandon earned her a 0-40 advantage on Garcia’s serve, but the Frenchwoman responded magnificently, producing a pair of aces before absorbing a heavy and sustained attack on her backhand. After a couple of deuces, another ace carried her to game point, where a heavy first serve set up a devastating swing volley. There would be no way back for Kvitova.
The thoughts of both women will now turn to the US Open. Kvitova’s immediate concern will be recovering from her injury. Garcia, meanwhile, is looking to the future with a renewed sense of clarity.
“I think my pathway is [established] for my game, and my mentality is way clearer. We made it clear which way I have to play, which direction I have to go. So when I step on court, I know what game style I have to play, and I know what I have to do.”
Few will relish the prospect of facing her.