Life can change a lot from one year to the next, Caroline Garcia is there to confirm it. After a spectacular 2022, closing the curtain as a WTA master, this year the Frenchwoman will have to settle for competing in the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai, where twelve world-class players will seek to lift the penultimate trophy of the course.
We tend to tend toward negativity whenever we evaluate the season of a player who did not offer his greatest benefits. Caroline Garcia, for example, has not been able to repeat the enormous results of the previous calendar, but it does not by any means mean that its 2023 will be a disaster. It has not been her best year, very far from the previous one, but the Saint-Germain player has not suffered any injuries, she has remained in the top 10 and has been one step away from competing again in the WTA Cancun Finals. Maybe that tournament would have ended up raising his grade a couple of points.
What has happened to Garcia this year? Basically, the French tennis player has paid the toll of the great champions, suffering the pressure of not slowing down and the expectations of those who still want to reach higher peaks. This is where the problems begin, where after ten months we see that she was not able to win any titles, although she was able to lose a couple of finals. With some very dark moments in terms of performance, Caroline has managed to not leave the group of the ten best in the world, once again being the greatest gunner of the current year, just as she already did twelve months ago. Of course, she herself recognizes the pain of not being able to defend her master crown this November.
“I knew for several weeks that I was not going to qualify for this year’s WTA Finals. Compared to the last results, we could say that it is somewhat logical, but I admit that it was something that I had in some corner of my head, I knew that I needed to obtain some extraordinary results in this final part if I wanted to have any chance, but after falling into “The first round of the US Open got very complicated,” said the current #10 in the ranking in statements collected by Tennis Majors.
It was precisely after that setback in New York – where she defended in the semi-finals – against China’s Yafan Wang that good news began to arrive at her door. Quarterfinals in San Diego (lost to Collins), semifinals in Guadalajara (gives up to Sakkari), quarterfinals in Tokyo (Sakkari again), quarterfinals in Beijing (epic comeback by Swiatek) and round of 16 in Zhengzhou ( out against Paolini in the debut, with no chance of reaching Cancún). A final stretch quite worthy of the European one, although she lacked that extra confidence to hit a stop and continue dreaming of reaching Mexico.
A CONSOLATION TOURNAMENT
Now the horizon places it in the second step of the circuit, which brings together all those rackets that were left out of the WTA Finals, but who will have the opportunity to add one more event with the WTA Elite Trophy de Zhuhai, also known as the ‘Masters B’. From October 24 to 29, the tennis players ranging from #9 to #20 in the world rankings will be there to restart an event that has not been held since 2019, when Aryna Sabalenka won it. One of those participants will be Caroline Garcia.
“When I read that I had officially been left out of the race to reach Cancun, it hurt me a little. One of my biggest challenges was trying to defend my title, so this will be one of my goals again next season,” analyzes the Frenchwoman in that same interview, although she quickly changes the discourse to stay with the positive. “Playing in Zhuhai is obviously not what I wanted, but I officially qualified for this tournament and I will be there. A few days ago, a colleague told me: ‘Well, in the end it hasn’t been such a bad year, a year that you considered was being terrible.’ You will have to listen to that friend more times, because he is very right.
2023-10-20 06:30:00
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