Garcia completes historic Wuhan and Beijing double
The unseeded Frenchwoman defeated new world number one Simona Halep to win a second title in two weeks to move into top 10.
Caroline Garcia won the biggest singles title of her career by defeating freshly minted world number one Simona Halep in the China Open final in Beijing on Sunday to become the first player to complete the Wuhan and Beijing double.
Garcia extended her winning streak to 11 matches and added to her Wuhan Open triumph last week. The current world number 15 will climb to ninth in the rankings on Monday, marking her top 10 debut.
Garcia's feat was all the more remarkable because she was carrying a leg injury that has required frequent on-court treatment and completed a mammoth three-set quarter-final win well past midnight on Friday evening.
The Frenchwoman and is now on track to qualify for the season-ending WTA finals, as her win took her past Briton Johanna Konta to number eight in the Race to Singapore rankings.
The 23-year-old sank to her knees in relief on the hard court when she finally sealed victory in the second-set tie break.
Garcia and Halep wow Beijing crowd
With rain teeming down outside ahead of what turned out to be a cracker, a leak in the Diamond Court stadium roof had threatened to dampen proceedings.
But that was soon fixed and there was little between the two players until Garcia broke Halep in the 10th game to grab the first set.
The 26-year-old Halep had the superior mobility -- Garcia had her right thigh strapped -- but the French player was making the better shots.
One forehand winner was greeted with gasps from the mostly full arena in Beijing.
The second set was even more competitive and the attritional seventh game turned out to be a turning point.
Garcia was 0-40 down on her own serve until dragging it to 40-40 and then saving half a dozen break points before somehow winning the game to go 4-3 up.
The duo raced into the tie break, but Garcia now had the momentum and she held her nerve to make it a famous Wuhan-Beijing double.
Despite her disappointment Halep will officially become world number one for the first time when the latest rankings are out on Monday.