Tennis News: Caroline Garcia ends comeback season with the WTA Finals title

The world's no. 5 Aryna Sabalenka has been suffering through a bad service game since the beginning of the season. She was fantastic with her service in the first 12 games of the opening set. She committed one double fault in the first set and won more points on the second serve.

However, the 29-year-old French took advantage of her explosive forehand to force Aryna Sabalenka to commit two double faults and claim the first set 7-6 (7-4) as the Belarusian began struggling with her service games.

US Open finalist Caroline Garcia broke her Belarusian opponent in the first game of the second set and comfortably cruised to a straight-set victory.

Aryna Sabalenka said, “I’m not going to say thank you to my team because it’s so many double faults, you guys are such a bad team. No, no, no, I’m joking. It’s been a challenging year for us.”

Caroline Garcia served 11 aces, won 79% of the points on the first serve and broke Aryna Sabalenka's serve one time from one opportunity. In contrast to this, the 24-year-old Belarusian served four aces, won 69% of the points on the first serve and committed three double faults.

In a post-match interview, Caroline Garcia said, “It’s a lot of giant happiness. A crazy final, with a lot of intensity on every point. Just really proud of the work we did throughout the year. It was a great match. U went for it. I’m thrilled to win my biggest title."

The aggressive and forward-thinking gameplay of Caroline Garcia at the WTA Finals helped her claim 1375 points and the prize money of USD 1.57 million. She is all set to finish the season at a career-high as the world's no. 4 following her victory.

Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Germany claimed the WTA finals title in the doubles category. They roared back from 7-2 down in the third-set tiebreak to secure a 6-2, 4-6, [11-9] victory over the defending champions Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova of Serbia.

Iga Swiatek solidifies her top spot with a ranking points milestone

Polish sensation Iga Swiatek has solidified her place at the top of the WTA charts in the final update as the season ends. The point tally of Iga Swiatek now stands at 11,085 points, making her the first player since Serena Williams in 2013 to break the 11,000-point mark.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="pl" dir="ltr">Year-end <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WTA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WTA</a> Top 10:<br><br>1. Iga Swiatek: 11085<br>2. Ons Jabeur: 5055<br>3. Jessica Pegula: 4691<br>4. Caroline Garcia: 4375<br>5. Aryna Sabalenka: 3925<br>6. Maria Sakkari: 3871<br>7. Coco Gauff: 3646<br>8. Daria Kasatkina: 3435<br>9. Veronika Kudermetova: 2795<br>10. Simona Halep: 2661 <a href="https://t.co/j4XJo3G4Aw">pic.twitter.com/j4XJo3G4Aw</a></p>&mdash; WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) <a href="https://twitter.com/WTA_insider/status/1589907663890001920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

The updated end-of-the-season rankings following the WTA Finals are:

 

Rank	Name	Country	Points
1	Iga Swiatek	Poland	11,085
2	Ons Jabeur	Tunisia	5,055
3	Jessica Pegula	USA	4,691
4	Caroline Garcia	France	4,375
5	Aryna Sabalenka	Belarus	3,925
6	Maria Sakkari	Greece	3,871
7	Coco Gauff	USA	3,646
8	Daria Kasatkina	Russia	3,435
9	Veronika Kudermetova	Russia	2,795
10	Simona Halep	Romania	2,661