Garcia grabs China crown

Beijing : Caroline Garcia’s magical run through China has reached new heights.

Garcia from France shocked impending World No.1 Simona Halep of Romania, 6-4, 7-6(3), to win the China Open yesterday. Garcia has won her second consecutive title and eleventh straight match, and will enter the Top 10 at World No.9 on Monday after her heroics.

“I was like, ‘Seriously, this really happen?’” exclaimed Garcia in her post-match press conference. “I mean, it was such an amazing two weeks. It went so fast.”

Garcia also now sits in eighth position in the Porsche Race to Singapore, putting herself ahead of Johanna Konta of Great Britain for the final singles spot at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

Moreover, Garcia became the first ever player to win the Dongfeng Motors Wuhan Open and the China Open in the same year. Petra Kvitova in 2014 and Garbine Muguruza in 2015 made both finals, but neither could capture both titles (Kvitova lost the Beijing final that year, while Muguruza could not triumph in Wuhan in 2015).

The final was exceptionally close -- Garcia and Halep each finished with 76 points won, their ratios of winners to unforced errors were similar, and they had nearly equal success rates on their service winning percentages.

Garcia, however, got one more break of service than Halep, and that opportunity was the difference. Halep could only break once, and even though she had ten break points in total, there were only two games in the entire match where she held break point at all.

“The key was definitely to be aggressive and try to dominate the rallies -- my serve was really an important thing because she’s a very good returner,” explained Garcia. “I have to be aggressive, but I have to control myself sometimes,” she laughed.