Caroline Garcia: A moment in the sun or a sign of better times ahead? Premium

Caroline Garcia capped a remarkable 2022, a year in which she rose from No. 74 to No. 4, by claiming the WTA Finals. Can the 29-year-old — once viewed as a future World No. 1 — put a bumpy past behind her and build on the success of a standout season?

In the second round of Roland Garros in 2011, 17-year-old Caroline Garcia had Maria Sharapova on the ropes, leading 6-3, 4-1. Although she could not put the then three-time Major-winner away, Garcia caught the eye. Sharapova thought she was “on her way up, definitely”. Andy Murray was even more impressed. “The girl Sharapova is playing is going to be No. 1 one day. Caroline Garcia, what a player, you heard it here first,” he tweeted.

That prediction is yet to be realised — the 29-year-old from Lyon has struggled to live up to the lofty expectations. But in 2022, Garcia clawed her way out of a career slump and showed just why she was once so highly rated.

She scored the biggest victory of her career to claim the season-ending WTA Finals last month, only the second French player to win the title after Amelie Mauresmo in 2005. “It’s definitely a lot of giant happiness,” said Garcia, the last woman standing in an elite field that featured the season’s top eight players.

She had also advanced to the last four of a Grand Slam singles event for the first time in her career at the US Open earlier in the year. “My head is buzzing, I can’t describe how I feel,” she said after beating American prodigy Coco Gauff to make the semifinals.

Add her doubles triumph with Kristina Mladenovic at Roland Garros — her second Grand Slam trophy, having won the same event in 2016 with Mladenovic — and you can see why she described 2022 as the best season of her life. The year marked the culmination of a long road back for Garcia, who had not collected a singles title since 2019.

Having started 2022 at No. 74 and then slipping to No. 79 in May, when she made a return from a foot injury, she ended the season by equalling her career-best ranking of World No. 4. For the second time in her career, she won more than 40 singles matches in a year, as she pocketed four singles titles across all three surfaces: hard (Cincinnati, Finals), grass (Bad Homburg) and clay (Warsaw).

She was especially good between mid-June and mid-September. She won 31 of her 36 matches, which gave her three of her four titles of the season. Over the year, she notched up eight top-10 victories, including a tough three-set conquest of No. 1 Iga Swiatek in Poland. The other Major winners she found a way past in 2022 were Petra Kvitova, Emma Raducanu, Bianca Andreescu (twice) and Simona Halep. She was also credited with a walkover against Elena Rybakina.