Tennis – WTA Tour Finals – Singapore Indoor Stadium, Singapore – October 27, 2017 France’s Caroline Garcia celebrates winning her group stage match against Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki REUTERS/Jeremy Lee
October 27, 2017
By John O’Brien
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Caroline Garcia has made a habit out of winning from difficult positions and the Frenchwoman needed to call on her ability to turn around a tough situation once more on Friday to ride her momentum into the last four of the WTA Finals.
The 24-year-old won back-to-back tournaments in China to become the eighth and final qualifier for Singapore and after being battered by Caroline Wozniacki in the opening set, Garcia stormed back to record a stunning 0-6 6-3 7-5 triumph.
“I was feeling like she was missing nothing. She was reading my game so well. I was playing very flat, and she didn’t have any issue with it,” Garcia told reporters of the first set against the Danish former world number one.
“Then I changed a few things, put more intensity into my legs. Finally, she started to make a couple of mistakes and I kept the intensity up, kept trying to find a way.
“I’m happy to be in the heat of the battle, when I’m fighting and finding a way to come back. But if I can win in two sets, I’m sure I would be just as happy about it, and my team would be even more.”
The reward for her victory over Wozniacki, hot on the heels of another come-from-behind triumph over Elina Svitolina, is a semi-final against an evergreen Venus Williams on Saturday, a match the Frenchwoman is relishing.
“She did surprise me yesterday (on Thursday) with her win against (Garbine) Muguruza in two sets. A couple of times she looked done but she always came back,” Garcia said.
“She has had an amazing season this year with two finals in grand slams. It’s great to see her capable of playing at this level, and at 37, it’s kind of hard to believe, actually.
“She has a lot of experience. She knows how to manage these kind of matches and I will have… I will not be the aggressive player on court.
“It will be a different match from my last three. It will be very interesting for me if I make it through. Physically, I’m feeling good on court and it’s great to still be fit at this end of the season, so there’s a lot of positives to take away.”
(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
