By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday November 8, 2022
Caroline Garcia finished her season with her biggest title, while Holger Rune made history in Paris.
Photo Source: TN
We’re starting a new weekly feature here at Tennis Now. In conjunction with our friends at Tennis Express, we’re gonna bring you two players, who really stood out – one from the WTA Tour and one from the ATP Tour.
And they shall be named: Tennis Express players of the week…
This week it is pretty obvious who gets the nod on the WTA Tour - that would be France’s Caroline Garcia, who cowboy’d up in Fort Worth to claim her biggest career title at the WTA Finals.
Garcia, ranked outside of the top-75 as early as June, was magnificent down the stretch in ‘22 as she notched a tour-leading 36 wins in the final five months of the season, including titles in Bad Homburg, Warsaw, Cincinnati and – of course – the WTA Finals.
Garcia, from the gastronomic hotbed of Lyon, France, was looking sleek in her Yonex Tournament dress with inner shorts, preferring the black version because, well, she was a cowboy in Texas.
The Frenchwoman sports the New Balance FuelCell tennis shoes, which are not only colorful but super light.
SHOP CAROLINE GARCIA'S GEAR ON TENNIS EXPRESS
And of course the trusty Yonex VCore racquet helped Garcia fire aces and rip winners past Sabalenka on Monday.
In Monday’s final Garcia was flawless on serve, never facing a break point as she battled past Aryna Sabalenka, 7-6(4), 6-4. It was one of those finals where the first player who blinked would end up losing, and it sure as heck wasn’t going to be Garcia.
The 29-year-old is the first woman from France to win the WTA Finals crown since Amelie Mauresmo in 2005, and she’ll rise to No.4 in the WTA Rankings, finishing the season at the same career-high ranking that she set in 2018.
We’re looking forward to seeing if Garcia can take it even higher in 2022.
On the men’s side the choice is simple as well. That would be Danish teen Holger Rune, who stormed to the Paris title on Sunday, defeating Novak Djokovic in a dramatic final to become the youngest champion at Paris since Boris Becker in 1986.
Rune opened his tournament by saving three match points to defeat Stan Wawrinka, then went on an absolute tear, defeating five top-10 players in succession to claim his first Masters 1000 title.
Rune defeated Hubert Hurkacz, Andrey Rublev, World No.1 Carlos Alcaraz, Felix Auger-Aliassime and 21-time Slam champion Novak Djokovic to achieve a feat that had never been done outside of the ATP Finals.
Could his success have something to do with that aero modular beam of his Babolat Pure Aero 2023 Tennis Racquet? The only way to find out is to demo one at Tennis Express, to see for yourself.
HOLGER RUNE PLAYS BABOLATE RACQUETS - SHOP THEM HERE
HOLGER RUNE WEARS NIKE APPAREL - SHOP AT TENNIS EXPRESS
On the apparel side Rune is all about the Nikes, just like his fellow teen Carlos Alcaraz. We loved his Nike Men's Court Dri-FIT Advantage Men's Print Top – colorful, breathable and fashionable!
The 19-year-old jumps to No.10 in Monday’s rankings and shows up at next week’s ATP Finals in Turin as the No 1 alternate. All this after starting the season outside the top-100 at 103 in the world. Bravo, Holger!
Congrats to Caro and Holger, our players of the week for the week ending on November 7, 2022. Keep watching this space to see who emerges from the Billie Jean King Cup and ATP Finals – see you next time and thanks for watching Tennis Now TV..