A jubilant Caroline Garcia poses with the WTA Finals trophy (US Open - Twitter)
The experienced Frenchwoman, Caroline Garcia, has had a 2022 to remember as she has made an epic resurgence to get back to where she belongs.
Caroline Garcia began the season as the world No. 74. She made a phenomenal climb in the rankings to No. 4 by the time she finished the season. Garcia is the player with the most positions gained in the WTA rankings compared to the start of the season amongst the current top 20. Now let’s take a look at how the 29-year-old made it possible.
Garcia began her season with a disappointing loss in the first round at the Gippsland Trophy. In Sydney, Garcia fared better and progressed to the quarterfinals, where she lost to Barbora Krejcikova. In the first Grand Slam event of the year – the Australian Open, Garcia crashed out in the first round after losing to Hailey Baptiste after winning the first set. Another first-round exit awaited her in the Dubai Tennis Championships. Garcia lost to Krejcikova for the second time in the year.
The Qatar Open saw Garcia defeat 2-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep in the round of 64. In the round of 32, she was ousted by 14th seed Coco Gauff. Garcia produced her best result of the season till then at the Lyon Open. She progressed to the semis with wins against Martina Trevisan and Alison Van Uytvanck before going down to Zhang Shuai.
In the BNP Paribas Open, Garcia lost in the second round to 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu. After retiring mid-way during her first-round clash against Anna Bondar in Miami, Garcia returned at the French Open. In the singles event, she was ousted in the second round. However, in the doubles event, Garcia teamed up with fellow Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic and defeated the American duo of Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula in the final. This was her second Grand Slam triumph in the doubles event in Roland-Garros.
Garcia achieved success on the doubles circuit but singles success still eluded her. She was ousted in the round of 16 at the Nottingham Open and Birmingham Open.
Caroline Garcia’s turnaround began in the latter half of June as she won her first singles title of the season at the Bad Homburg Open.
She continued the good form en route to reaching the fourth round in Wimbledon for the second time in her career. At the Ladies Open Lausanne, Garcia lost in the semis to Petra Martic. After a quarter-final exit at the Palermo Ladies Open, Garcia managed to win the Poland Open final.
Garcia was ousted in the first round in Montreal but she bounced back to win the Western & Southern Open. Garcia became the first qualifier to win the title. She achieved her best result at a major by reaching the US Open semis. In the Japan Open and Guadalajara Open, Garcia was ousted in the round of 16 while in San Diego, she crashed out in the round of 32.
Garcia made the cut for the WTA Finals for the second time in her career. She went on to capture her fourth title of the season. In the group stages, she lost only to Iga Swiatek. Wins against Coco Gauff and Daria Kasatkina were enough to take her to the semis. In the semis, she defeated Maria Sakkari to set up a date with Aryna Sabalenka in the final. Garcia won the final in straight sets and climbed back to No. 4 in the rankings.
On the tour, Garcia won 45 singles matches while having lost 20 with a win percentage of 69.23. She won four singles titles as well.
In doubles, she finished with 10 wins and 3 losses. Garcia will look to build on this year’s fine performance when the new season begins. Many tennis fans are backing her to win her first singles Grand Slam in 2023.
More Tennis news
Follow our dedicated Tennis page for instant Tennis news and updates