WTA Finals: Caroline Garcia does it almost like Judith Wiesner and Barbara Paulus
The places for the WTA Finals are decreasing: Cori Gauff and Caroline Garcia have now also qualified - the latter five years after their first participation.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit:
Oct 20, 2022, 07:44 pm
Caroline Garcia is one of those who likes to focus on final spurts. She started in autumn 2017 and started a winning streak over Wuhan and Beijing, this time she started in the summer, starting with the tournament success in Bad Homburg, through Warsaw and Cincinnati and reaching the semi-finals at the US Open. Remarkable: In Bad Homburg, Garcia was still ranked 75th in the world!
And what would the world be like today without statistics from the category "What's not available" - the statistics company OptaAce has dug up just such: Garcia's five-year break between the first and second participation in the WTA Finals has so far only been made by good old Amy Frazier (at the age of eight) - and by Judith Wiesner and Barbara Paulus (at the age of six each). Both were at the Masters in 1990 and 1996, but at that time there were still 16 participants at the start.
Also Cori Gauff in Fort Worth
Gauff, meanwhile, is the first player since Maria Sharapova in 2005 to compete in the WTA Finals before her 19th birthday, and the first (under-19 player) from the United States since Lindsay Davenport in 1994. (The Williams Sisters were qualified before their 19th birthday, but did not take part at that time.)
Iga Swiatek, Ons Jabeur and Jessice Pegula had already qualified, so three places are still open. Aryna Sabalenka, Daria Kasatkina, Veronika Kudermetova, Maria Sakkari, Madison Keys, Danielle Collins and Jelena Ostapenko are still hoping for them in Guadalajara.