Caroline Garcia begins WTA Finals marketing campaign in fashion, defeats American teen Coco Gauff

Fort Value (Texas) Nov. 2 (IANS): French tennis participant Caroline Garcia, making a WTA Finals look for the primary time in 5 years, made a robust assertion within the year-ending championships with a straight-sets opening-round win over American teenager Coco Gauff within the round-robin event.

The No.6 seed Garcia wanted 1 hour and 18 minutes to defeat No.4 Gauff 6-4, 6-3 on Tuesday night time. It was the primary round-robin match for every of them within the Tracy Austin Group. “It was undoubtedly a great match, fairly stable on my aspect,” Garcia was quoted as saying by wtatennis.com after the match. “I believe I stayed actually optimistic at each second.

“(Coco) is at all times spectacular to play in opposition to, it’s at all times a number of depth and she will achieve this many issues. … It was essential for me to remain calm, keep on my sport and what I wished to do, and I believe I did it good.”

Garcia joins world No.1 Iga Swiatek of Poland as the primary winners within the Austin Group. Swiatek dispatched No.8 seed Daria Kasatkina in straight units earlier throughout the day.

Garcia’s maiden WTA Finals debut got here in 2017 following consecutive WTA 1000 titles. She reached the semifinal then however missed out on singles qualification for the following three editions — the WTA Finals weren’t held in 2020 on account of Covid-19.

At the beginning of this yr, Garcia was ranked outdoors the top-70. Nonetheless, is seeing resurgence within the second half this yr, which she credit to elevated aggressive play. Garcia has gained 33 Tour-level matches since June, not less than 10 greater than every other participant in that timeframe.

Garcia gained three titles within the again finish of 2022, all on completely different surfaces, and he or she made the primary Grand Slam semifinal of her profession on the US Open.

Garcia securing her second WTA Finals qualification 5 years after her debut means she turns into solely the fourth gamers to have have had longer gaps between their first and second WTA Finals appearances — Amy Frazier (eight-years), Barbara Paulus (six years) and Judith Wiesner (six years).

Gauff had gained their first two encounters, however Garcia achieved her career-best main outcome by beating Gauff within the 2022 US Open quarterfinals. Garcia continued her momentum in opposition to the American on Tuesday, firing 20 winners to Gauff’s 12.