Barty beats Garcia to keep Elite Trophy hopes alive
Australia’s Ashleigh Barty beat an out-of-sorts French No.1 Caroline Garcia to keep her semifinal hopes alive at the WTA Elite Trophy on Thursday.
Ninth seed Barty broke Garcia once in each set to win the round-robin tie 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 16 minutes in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province.
Barty, who lost to Aryna Sabalenka on Tuesday, now has to wait for the outcome of Garcia and Sabalenka’s match to see if she will progress to the semifinals on Saturday.
“It’s out of my hands,” Barty said in her post-match press conference.
“I just have to sit back and watch tomorrow. But I’m certainly pleased to have had the year we’ve had and really nice to finish on a positive note today.”
She said she was in a “winwin situation,” being able to “play with freedom,” but knowing that if she lost she could still go home at the end of the season.
Garcia, 25, was crowned champion in Tianjin in October, but she was unable to bring that form into her opening match in Zhuhai.
The world No.18, seeded eighth, said she had some back pain coming into the tournament, and felt her legs weren’t moving the way she wanted on court.
“It was a very difficult match for me today and I think she played great, but I wasn’t feeling very good and didn’t have the rhythm I wanted,” she said.
“It’s a difficult start for me of course, but I was happy to start on Thursday because I had some back pain when I got back to France last Monday, so it was a very complicated week for me.”
The Elite Trophy features 12 players ranked roughly from ninth to 20th. This year’s total prize money is $2.35 million across the singles and doubles tournaments.