Although her results did not seem that impressive, Caroline Garcia’s results were extremely solid and consistent which led to her being able to keep her place in the top-10 throughout almost the entire season. Being the winner of the Tianjin Open, the Frenchwoman would like to carry her good form to the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai.

However, she faces an uphill task if she were to mount a deep run as Garcia is drawn into the same group with the crafty Ashleigh Barty and hard-hitting Aryna Sabalenka. It is an extremely competitive group and either of them has the chance to progress into the semifinals.

Solid 2018 books Zhuhai ticket for Garcia

Garcia faced some injury troubles in the first week of 2018 but made it all the way to the second week of the Australian Open which included a terrific win over rising star Marketa Vondrousova with an 8-6 scoreline in the final set.

Consecutive quarterfinal appearances followed in Doha and Dubai, and although a huge breakthrough never really came, those were some really consistent performances put up by the Frenchwoman.

Clay, after all, proved to be Garcia’s best surface as she made the semifinals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix with terrific comeback wins over Maria Sharapova and Elina Svitolina in the process. A last-four finish came at the Mutua Madrid Open as well, and Garcia claimed victories over Dominika Cibulkova and Julia Goerges along the way.

Caroline Garcia had an impressive clay-court season | Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images Europe
Caroline Garcia had an impressive clay-court season | Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images Europe

A top-10 win over Sloane Stephens came in Rome before Garcia made yet another second-week appearance at a Major, this time at the French Open where she had the advantage of the home crowd.

Fantastic performances came against Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka on hard courts, and although she exited in the third round of the US Open, she was ensured a new career-high ranking of four in the world just before the Asian swing.

She failed to defend both her titles in Wuhan and Beijing — as a result, she fell out of the world’s top-15 eventually. Nonetheless, she overcame her disappointment by storming to the title at the Tianjin Open where she defeated top seed Karolina Pliskova in the final. She won the title without losing a set and was ensured a spot in the WTA Elite Trophy with this run.

Caroline Garcia failed to defend her title in Wuhan and Beijing but managed to triumph in Tianjin | Photo: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images AsiaPac
Caroline Garcia failed to defend her title in Wuhan and Beijing but managed to triumph in Tianjin | Photo: Lintao Zhang/Getty Images AsiaPac
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