“You try to deal with it every single week, every single day” – Garcia on rough patch after reaching Miami quarters
The Frenchwoman scored her first top 10 scalp since the end of 2022 with her win over Coco Gauff in Miami on Monday
Caroline Garcia at the 2024 Miami Open
Image Credit: Zuma / Panoramic
Image Credit: Zuma / Panoramic
It’s been a rough 12 months for Caroline Garcia. The 30-year-old Frenchwoman was ranked No 4 in the world at the time of the Miami Open last year. One year later, Garcia is down to No 27 in the rankings and came into Miami this year with a mediocre 6-7 record on the tour and in search of her first quarter-final of the season.
After beating Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff in back-to-back matches, however, Garcia is now through to the last eight in Miami, after which she reflected on how she had been dealing with her poor results over the past few months.
“You try to deal with it every single week, every single day. You try to work hard season after season,” Garcia told the media after her win over Gauff on Monday. “Sometimes you don’t have all the results you want, and sometimes it can affect you more or too much, and you have to find a good balance and a good relationship with tennis to balance well, your professional life and personal. I think we have been able to do some good times. On the practice courts in Indian Wells after the loss against Maria (Sakkari), I was a bit down and then, we did some good practice, we saw she played well. So my team was, like, You see? It was not that bad. (Smiling.)”
Her win over Gauff was Garcia’s first over a top 10 player in 16 months and it clearly meant a lot to her. “It’s definitely a great match and great win for me. Last couple of months have not been easy, and definitely today following the match of yesterday it means a lot. It was some great tennis. It’s little details. But obviously we arrive here with some good practice. My game was there. I just had to go for it and play my matches. I have been able to do it one match at a time.”
Tennis is here, you know. You just have to put everything together. You have to manage your opponent on the other side of the net. So it’s a lot of little things.
Caroline Garcia
Despite her good run this week, Garcia is not taking anything for granted – knowing that she would need to continue to work on the little things to keep the wins coming.
“It is good, but it’s not changing everything. I had some good matches against Iga, and I was not able to get that win, but we did know that my level of tennis was still there. I was still able to play some good tennis. Sometimes I was, if you just see on paper, I was struggling more against player lower ranked than at the top one. Tennis is here, you know. You just have to put everything together. You have to manage your opponent on the other side of the net. So it’s a lot of little things.”
Next up for Garcia is a quarter-final showdown against Danielle Collins, whom she has never taken a set off in three career meetings. The Frenchwoman will be doing all that she can to get her injured shoulder, which seemed to bother her on Monday, back into the best shape possible.
“I have some history with some pain lately with my shoulder, and it’s hard to get rid of it. It was going way better the last couple of months. For some reason it came back, so we’ll try to do as good as we can and to recover and be ready.”
