French tennis legend Amelie Mauresmo thinks Caroline Garcia has what it takes to win a Grand Slam.
On Monday, Garcia captured the biggest title of her career after beating Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (4) 6-4 in the WTA Finals final.
After struggling with her game for several years, Garcia rediscovered her best game in the second half of the 2022 season.
In the second part of 2022, Garcia captured four titles – with the biggest ones being a maiden WTA 1000 title in Cincinnati and her first title at the prestigious season-ending tournament.
Also, Garcia made her first Grand Slam singles semifinal at the US Open.
“We’ve known it for a very long time, she has the potential to win a Grand Slam, that’s for sure,” Mauresmo told Eurosport.
Mauresmo backs Garcia to become a Grand Slam champion
Now that Garcia is a WTA 1000 and WTA Finals champion, her next goal will certainly be winning a Grand Slam.
Following her WTA Finals victory, Garcia returned to a career-high ranking of No 4, which she previously achieved in 2018.
On Monday, Garcia beat Sabalenka in two sets but it was all but an easy victory.
The only break points of the match were seen in the first game of the second set, when Garcia broke Sabalenka.
“It’s definitely a lot of giant happiness. 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. Just very happy about the mindset, to be really calm at every moment. All the negative emotion doesn’t affect me, and that was really a big part of taking the few opportunities I had in the tiebreaker and the first game I broke her in the second,” Garcia said after winning the WTA Finals.
Considering how Garcia finished her 2022 season, she will certainly be among the favorites for the Australian Open title in January.