Caroline Garcia says the work she's done to come back from a back injury is now helping her both physically and mentally, allowing her to be more consistent.
The 23-year-old won the title at this week's event at Wuhan in the first Premier 5 final of her career. Garcia could not play Stuttgart or Fed Cup because of the injury, and had to do a lot of training and rehab for the problem.
"I was spending five hours in the gym," she told press at Wuhan. "It was my first time I almost cried after a practice. I was, like, so tired. I was, like, 'c'mon, get me back on court, this is all I want.' "
Now that she is playing again, the Frenchwoman is enjoying competition a lot more. "All this, like, hard work, it's why I work for. Today when I was, like, 5-4 serving for the match, I [reminded] myself, 'That's why you train hard,'" she said, after having reached the semifinals. "This is the moment you have to, like, embrace and just play.
"I can enjoy the win now."
Garcia returned from the injury at the clay-court events at Madrid and Rome, and has since reached the quarterfinals or better at all but two of the eight WTA events she has played, in addition to the second week of both the French Open and Wimbledon. The increased consistency could be a product of her break for injury.
"But I think I learn and my team learn a lot from this period. We try to take the most of the positive of this. So now my body is getting better, and I'm able to perform on court at 100 percent almost," she said. "So you just have to keep the hard work of every day, don't get overexcited because you won couple of matches in a row or because you are making a semifinal in a big tournament."
Garcia is No. 20 and will reach a new career-high ranking.