On grass, clay and hard courts, Caroline Garcia has been tough to stop this summer

INTERVIEW: Caroline Garcia stops by the Tennis Channel desk after her Cincinnati final victory

Caroline Garcia’s scintillating summer continued Sunday in Cincinnati at the Western & Southern Open with a 6-2, 6-4 victory in the final over Petra Kvitova. Since just after Roland Garros, Garcia has won three singles titles, each on a different surface—in June on grass (Bad Homburg), in July on clay (Warsaw), and, now, in August, with this WTA 1000 victory, on hard courts.

Over this time, Garcia has won 27 matches, more than any other WTA Tour player during that span. Ranked 75th two months ago, Garcia will be inside the Top 20 at No. 17 on Monday.

“You know, every match every day was a new day, new challenge,” said Garcia. “Every time I had to be focused on myself, on my game, what can I do, how I can be more aggressive, how can I improve. Just one day at a time I ended up here today on the final and now lifting the trophy.

“On the 1000, everything goes so fast. You have to refocus every morning. It's a tough challenge, but I'm really happy the way we made it through.”

Given that Garcia emerged from the qualifying to win this tournament, it took eight match wins for her to end up with the first-prize check of $255,220. Versus Kvitova, Garcia demonstrated a grasp of a simple but profound strategic principle: there are two games in tennis, the serve game and the return game. As she has repeatedly this summer, Garcia was masterful at applying sustained pressure in both, from standing in closer to return to repeatedly cracking her delivery.

“I think my pathway is for my game, and my mentality is way clearer," said Garcia. "We made it clear which way I have to play, which direction I have to go. So when I step on court, I know what game style I have to play, and I know what I have to do, and always try to do it the best I can.”

On the return side, Garcia captured Kvitova’s opening service game in each set. When serving, Garcia converted 64 percent of her first serves, won 82 percent of first-serve points, fought off all eight break points she faced, and hit 11 aces.

“Caroline just, when she was down, she just served aces,” said Kvitova. “That's how it should be, how the champions are doing it, and I just didn't do it today. Yeah, I think that she deserved to win.”

And yet, as dominant as Garcia was throughout the first set and early stages of the second, as much as she triggered repeated Kvitova errors with everything from deep, hard, varied drives to superb court coverage, as sluggish as Kvitova was for so long, there came a moment when the match might have taken a major plot twist. Serving at 6-2, 3-2, Garcia opened the game with a double-fault, netted a forehand courtesy of a forceful Kvitova drive, then misfired wide with a makeable down-the-line forehand.

Down love-40, Garcia responded with two straight aces down the T. At 30-40—an exceptionally nerve-wracking moment for both players following a love-40 situation—Garcia repeatedly chased down Kvitova’s crosscourt forehands and at last extracted an error. Two deuces later, Garcia struck another ace and service winner to go up 4-2.

At 5-4, two more aces brought Garcia to championship point at 40-15. Yet another great serve down the T elicited a missed forehand return and Garcia’s tenth career singles title.

On the 1000, everything goes so fast. You have to refocus every morning. It's a tough challenge, but I'm really happy the way we made it through. Caroline Garcia

“In my first game I was still a bit tight, tired, didn't serve very well, and she was just on the board," said Kvitova. "Then I had opportunity, but she saved it. I think from that point she got some confidence and she just went for it, which it's her game, so it's not surprising.”

What a time of rebirth it’s been for the 28-year-old Garcia. Recall that as far back as 2011, Andy Murray expressed his belief via Twitter that she would eventually be No. 1 in the world. While Garcia has been ranked as high as No. 4, earned more than $12 million in career prize money, and won two major doubles titles, her best Grand Slam singles effort has been one quarterfinal appearance at Roland Garros five years ago.

This week in Cincinnati, Garcia beat three Top 10 players—Maria Sakkari, Iga Swiatek, Jessica Pegula, as well as two-time Wimbledon winner Kvitova. Months ago, it would have been easy to view Garcia as an intriguing shotmaker. A couple of weeks ago, she’d transitioned into the dangerous floater category. But now, having generated so many significant results, with the US Open a week away, she’s a legitimate contender. Kvitova concurred.

“Well, actually, there was a song, ‘The Girl is on Fire,’ right?” she said. “I was, like, this is the best description of her.”