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Caroline Garcia defeats world No 1 Simona Halep to claim China Open title

Sunday 8 October 2017 14:51, UK

Caroline Garcia of France poses with the winners trophy after winning the Women's Singles final against Simona Halep of Roman
Image: Caroline Garcia defeated Simona Halep in the final of the China Open

Caroline Garcia earned a hard-fought victory over impending new world No 1 Simona Halep in the China Open final to claim her second successive title.

The unseeded French player, who won the Wuhan Open last week, edged the Romanian in a hard-fought battle, 6-4 7-6(3), in Beijing for an 11th straight match victory.

Garcia will rise from world No 15 to ninth in the rankings on Monday. It's her first appearance in the world's top 10 and significantly pushes her into eighth place in the race to make the season-ending WTA finals.

BEIJING, CHINA - OCTOBER 08: Caroline Garcia of France, holding the winners trophy, and Simona Halep of Romania, holding the runners up trophy, pose for a
Image: Halep and Garcia pose with their trophies following Sunday's final

Halep, broke Garcia's serve in the first game of the contest but the 23-year-old broke back immediately before securing a further break.

With the score level at 3-3 in the second set, Garcia saved nine successive break points in the seventh game, before taking a 4-3 lead but Halep recovered well to force a tiebreak with some forceful serving.

Garcia began the tiebreak well securing the mini-break and never looked back to become the first player to complete the Wuhan and Beijing double.

BEIJING, CHINA - OCTOBER 08: Caroline Garcia of France returns a shot during the Women's Singles finals match against Simona Halep of Romania on day nine
Image: Garcia has enjoyed a strong run of form in the later stages of the season

"I was like, seriously, this really happened?" Garcia said afterwards when asked what was in her mind when she slumped to her knees on match point.

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"It was such an amazing two weeks, it went so fast, I have the feeling I started these tournaments yesterday or two days ago. To play every single day, it was just after every match you had to forget about what happened and be on the present again.

"Even this morning I couldn't believe I was in the final."

Meanwhile, Johanna Konta, who will miss this week's Hong Kong Open, will need to reach the final of the Kremlin Cup later this month to qualify for Singapore.

Sky Sports Tennis will have all the action from the ATP Shanghai Masters before the action heads to Paris.

The Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan and season-ending extravaganza World Tour Finals at London's O2 in November end another memorable year which will covered via our website www.skysports.com/tennis with live blogs and updates as the season reaches its climax.

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