Caroline Garcia continued her red-hot streak this summer with a stellar 6-2, 6-4 victory over two-time Grand Slam champion Petra Kvitova at the Western & Southern Open this past week. The title was her first 1000-level crown since 2017.
In the end, it was the 28-year-old Frenchwoman’s service game that was able to edge her to victory, delivering 11 aces in the match and winning 82 per cent of first serve points. She also saved all eight of the break points she faced.
Garcia’s road to the Cincinnati finals included victories over a trio of Top 10 players – Maria Sakkari (No. 3), Jessica Pegula (No. 8), and Aryna Sabalenka (No. 6). In her semi-final bout against Sabalenka, Garcia had to deal with a couple of long rain delays but still managed to pull together a win in three hard-fought sets.
Kvitova also had a clean run in Cincinnati, defeating Madison Keys and world No. 5 Ons Jabeur en route to her 40th career final. Despite battling through an injury in the final, Kvitova played a solid match, but couldn’t find an answer against the powerful Frenchwoman.
Garcia has had quite the run this summer winning titles on clay, grass, and hard courts. In June of this year, she was able to come back from being down a set against 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu in the Bad Homburg Open finals. The following month she returned to clay to play in the Poland Open where she upset world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals, eventually winning the Polish title.
The 28-year-old will now look to continue her red-hot streak into the US Open series, next playing in the Tennis of the Land WTA 250 tournament in Cleveland, Illinois.
