French tennis player Caroline Garcia on Sunday defeated Romanian Simona Halep 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) at the China Open final to earn her second title within eight days.
Hours after securing the top spot on the WTA, Halep paid for the unforced errors she made in the important moments of a match that lasted for one hour and 52 minutes, reports Efe.
Garcia became the only player to ever win both the Wuhan Open and the China Open back-to-back in the same year.
With the victory, she has secured the ninth spot on the WTA ranking, which is set to be released on Monday.
After a shaky start for both players, Garcia got the upper hand in the first set as she broke Halep's serve in the 10th game.
Both contenders held their serve in the second set despite the opportunities the Romanian ace had in the seventh game to go into a tie-break and Garcia took advantage of Halep's unforced errors.
More From This Section
--IANS
sam/vd