:A red-hot Caroline Garcia cruised past Greek Maria Sakkari 6-3 6-2 to reach her first WTA Finals championship match on Sunday, sending over 19 winners and a half-dozen aces in Fort Worth, Texas.
The U.S. Open semi-finalist will be well-rested when she next faces either Aryna Sabalenka or three-time major winner Iga Swiatek Monday, closing out the semi-final against the world number five in a cool 75 minutes.
The Frenchwoman needed three sets and everything in her arsenal to beat Sakkari in Cincinnati three months ago but showed no such issues at the season-ending tournament, breaking the Greek to love late in the first set before carrying the first four games of the second.
“Today I was just a little bit more relaxed,” Garcia said in a televised post-match interview.
“My game style today, she didn’t like it.”
A clumsy double-fault handed Sakkari a sorely needed break point chance in the sixth game but Garcia extinguished it instantly with an ace and the usually tough-fighting Greek never got a share of the momentum.
Garcia thrust her hands into the air as Sakkari whacked the ball into the net on the second match point and after customary handshakes she bounded around the court in utter joy, having reached the biggest final of her career.
It was sweet relief after Saturday’s emotional three-set epic against Daria Kasatkina but Garcia, who collected three titles earlier this year including Cincinnati, said she had little trouble regrouping in her second WTA Finals appearance.
“This morning I woke up (and) obviously the leg was a little bit heavy… nothing unusual,” she said. “It was not so many hours to be able to think about it.”
Sabalenka and world number one Swiatek were set to play later on Sunday.
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