“I cried a lot”: how Garcia tamed her emotions against Osaka

Obviously, we’re going to wait a while before getting carried away and making her a title favourite once again. Of course, it’s still too early to say that the great Caroline Garcia, the one from the end of 2017 and the end of 2022, is back. One fact remains: the Frenchwoman produced a near-perfect match on Monday to stifle Naomi Osaka (6-4, 7-6) in the heralded women’s 1st round clash at the Australian Open. Her most accomplished match in a long time, in any case. Especially on such an occasion.

“Caro” was impressive in one area of the game in particular: serving, as she didn’t concede a single break point. But beyond the purely tennis-related aspects, her serenity and apparent relaxation throughout the match, even in the few tense moments she had to endure, such as when she found herself 0-30 down despite serving at 5-4 to win the first set.

From the outside, she gave the impression that she wasn’t panicking for a second, as she pulled off a brilliant comeback with a huge forehand winner, followed by an ace and a service winner. On the inside, however, she was still boiling: “At 5-4 I told my coach, Pressure is coming up, I have to serve it out, and I feel more and more stress.”

This time, she handled it like a boss.

Garcia: You should have seen me earlier!

Enough has been said about the way in which she let herself be overwhelmed by pressure throughout 2023 not to notice the important work she seems to have done on the eve of this new season. Gone is the tight-jawed, arm-shaking Caro of last year. On several occasions in this high-voltage duel, we’ve seen her smile, sometimes even openly. It’s not only more pleasant, it’s also a hell of a lot more effective.

And it’s just reward, too, of meticulous preparation for this particular match and its attendant pressure.

“Playing Naomi in these courts, it’s always very special,” she said in her press conference afterwards. “Yeah, it will be a match I will remember. That’s also why I play tennis.”

But when asked about whether she thought the day was “perfect”, she added with a smile: “You should have seen me at 4pm today!”

At precisely 4pm, some five hours before entering the arena, she posted a long tweet (sorry, a long “X”), in the form of a catharsis, in which she promised to try to give her best for this 1st round. A way for her to accept her influx of emotions. And to let them come to her, the better to purge them. We don’t know if she’s found the recipe for serenity for good. But this time, at least, it worked.

She explained: “I let it out, so that mean I cried a lot. I talked with my team. Yeah, I mean, they gave me some positive energy, my partner, my coach.

“Yeah, after you realize that you prepared, you trained well, I had a couple of match behind me with some good performance against Iga and Elena, even if it didn’t turn on my side. It was good performance. I was feeling good physically. Then I tried to breathe as much as I could every single point.”

And when it comes to emotion, she said: “Sometimes there is a lot of going on. Sometimes, yeah, I’m really definitely sometimes struggling with my emotion. On court I’m not always having a great time lately.

“We are trying to, yeah, work on it. Sometimes it’s overwhelming. Definitely to be playing first round Naomi, coming back, great, great player, playing very late match, I was overwhelmed and I was scared to step out there.

“Sometime is good to let emotion out, yeah, embrace it. Then you try the best you can.”

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