WTA
World class has been a theme around here for the past couple of months, and for eight days women’s tennis brought its brand of elite to Fort Worth’s Dickies Arena.
The WTA finals concluded its season-ending tournament on Monday, crowning No. 6-seed Caroline Garcia as its champion after a straight-sets 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 victory over No. 7 Aryna Sabalenka on Monday night in front of an enthused and engaged crowd of roughly 6,000 which had clearly found a love connection with the tennis tournament after a slow first few days.
“It’s definitely a lot of giant happiness,” Garcia said in her post-match news conference. “A crazy final, a lot of intensity on every point. Just really proud of the work we did through all the year. It was a great match — really went for it. I’m really happy to win my biggest title.”
The victory earned the 29-year-old Garcia the Billie Jean King Trophy, presented by Chris Evert, and it also represented an enhancer to her financial portfolio.
Garcia, a daughter of France, has money to spend at the holidays, leaving Fort Worth with about $1.5 million, including $820,000 earned by winning on Monday.
The match was dominated at the service line as each player fired rockets at one another over the course of the 1 hour, 41-minute match. Both held serve into a tiebreaker to decide the first set. Garcia broke Sabalenka in the first game of the second set.
That seemed to take the air out of her as she appeared to grow increasingly frustrated. When her final groundstroke, a forehand, went long to the end the match, Sabalenka slammed her racket into the floor twice as Garcia collapsed in triumph and covered her face with her hands.
Sabalenka, a Belarusian, was gracious in defeat, however, embracing her foe afterward.
“I think this week was really positive,” said Sabalenka, who pulled off the shocker of the tournament, upsetting the world’s top-ranked player, Iga Swiatek, in the semifinals. “A lot of good things happened this week. And, yeah, very tough loss, but I did my best today. She played unbelievable tennis.
“I just dropped my level for a little bit. On the tiebreak and the first game of the second set. That’s it. So, yeah, I’m disappointed with this loss, but it happens, and I think I’m on the right way.”
Sabalenka’s Belarusian peers in the doubles final, the No. 4 seeds Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens, had a more favorable result, upending the defending champions, Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, 6-2, 4-6, 11-9.
The defending champions, both of the Czech Republic, had yet to lose a set in storming into the final, but got off to a bad start by losing serve in the first game.
They proved to be as stubborn as a splinter in fighting back to win the second set before falling in the third, a set the defending champs were up 7-2 at one point.
“I can’t even believe we won after that super tiebreak — it was 7-2. I can’t even remember the points, you know,” Mertens said.
Krejcikova and Siniakova, already champions at the three majors they contested — Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open — were 22-0 across this year's Grand Slams and WTA Finals entering the match. They had lost only three matches all season.
Krejcikova and Siniakova were bidding to become the seventh different team to defend their WTA Finals title. They were vying to join Martina Navratilova/Pam Shriver (1981-85, 1986-89), Gigi Fernandez/Natasha Zvereva (1993-94), Martina Hingis/Anna Kournikova (1999-00), Lisa Raymond/Samantha Stosur (2005-06), Cara Black/Liezel Huber (2007-08), and most recently, Timea Babos/Kristina Mladenovic (2018-19).
Navratilova was on hand to present the trophy to the new champions. She and Evert, two of the sport's legends, both received rousing ovations.
The tournament represented the second time in mere months that Fort Worth hosted the most talented pool in their respective avocations.
This summer, the city hosted the quadrennial Cliburn International Piano Competition, which drew thousands to the city and millions of eyes worldwide through streaming devices. The most recent count was 8.5 million who turned in from 170 countries.
The WTA Finals, likewise, attracted a worldwide audience from 30 countries.
Fort Worth and Dickies Arena scored the tournament on short notice, which hampered efforts to promote it.
“Today’s atmosphere was pretty amazing,” Garcia said. “The fans really enjoyed the show. They love tennis. Right from the beginning they were into it.”
The tournament had a definite Fort Worth flavor. Each of the finalists in both matches received cowboy hats, which they enthusiastically donned. Also, the runners-up trophies were designed and manufactured by Fort Worth’s SiNaCa Studios.
It’s possible it will come back next year.
The WTA’s preference is the fulfillment of a contract with Shenzhen, China. The reason: money. The reason it hasn’t worked out: a “zero-Covid” policy and human rights concerns surrounding the case of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai.
Last year, Peng accused a former top Chinese government official of sexual assault. She recanted the allegations, but the WTA is not convinced she did so under her own free will. The WTA has vowed not to hold tournaments in China until the matter is resolved to its satisfaction.
However, the only time the tournament was held in Shenzhen, in 2019, the WTA Finals offered $14 million in prize money, all of it raised by Shenzhen. Last year in Guadalajara and this year in Fort Worth, the prize money was $5 million, all put up by the WTA.
The one-year, temporary sites are “unsustainable,” the WTA has said.
The organization will seek to find a multiyear solution if it can’t or won’t go back to China.
If that doesn't happen before next year, it’s possible we’ll see the world’s top women’s tennis players back at Dickies Arena.
That represents triumph for Fort Worth's thriving tennis community.
“The atmosphere was unbelievable,” said Sabalenka. “To be honest, I didn’t expect that my support for me here and people support me a lot here, and I really enjoyed every second playing."
