	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ROLAND GARROS

June 4, 2018

Caroline Garcia

Paris, France

A. KERBER/C. Garcia

6-2, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. You said that Roland Garros was fine if you took everything that's positive. You also said that after the second round Roland Garros was fine, but you made incredible faults. Would you say that can sum up your match for today?
CAROLINE GARCIA: No, I don't think it's just an issue of pressure and expectations. I believe I wasn't able to manage it. There were several parameters. Today she played a very good match. She gave me very, very few points. She played very accurately and very precisely.

I wasn't in it. I didn't manage to find the rhythm, to be focused on my match. Plus the extra tension you have in Roland Garros, things got even worse. But on the day I can leave a Grand Slam saying I gave everything I had, I played a great match, is not here yet.

Let's say once again I exit a Grand Slam disappointed and frustrated, because I know I could do better. But you have to learn and continue.

Q. You always worked in steps. You always needed time. Would you say this step, this stage, is painful? Are you going to learn a lot?
CAROLINE GARCIA: Yes, I'm going to try and analyze it as best I can. Obviously right now, at this very moment, it's difficult because obviously you never know if you're going to win or lose a match.

But at the end of the match, you want to be able to tell yourself, Well, I gave all I had and my opponent was better than I was.

And today she played a good match, but I get the impression I could do better. I was well-prepared. But when the match started, I wasn't there yet, wasn't there anymore.

So it's frustrating, it's difficult, it's something I have to learn. I have to draw the lesson. And together with my team, we're going to try and draw as many lessons as possible to continue improving, because I want to go further.

Q. This panic that overcomes you sometimes, when you feel it coming, is it something you can't control, lack of clear-sightedness? What happens in your mind and your body?
CAROLINE GARCIA: It's difficult to say or to express, difficult to put words on my feelings.

At the beginning of the match, the first game was difficult because I had opportunities, short balls, but I couldn't make a difference. I got a break point, but I did drop a break. I made a few mistakes, a few faults.

Okay, she was solid, but I gave her the point. And this is a reflection on the match, of the match I played against her in Indian Wells. She's solid, but she doesn't give me any points. In the rallies, I go and try to do something different but with the wrong timing, and the faults came one after the other. It was very fast. I tried to think, to take time, and to do something, but then she obviously tries to seize the opportunities and to continue making headway, and I lose ground.

Q. Did you ask to play this match on Lenglen and not Chatrier?
CAROLINE GARCIA: No.

Q. Do you regret not knowing the center court here? Normally you should have gone there at least once.
CAROLINE GARCIA: No. No regret. I made a request for the first two matches, but then I had no specific request for the court. It was a decision of the organization. It was a beautiful court, Suzanne Lenglen. There was a great atmosphere. The people tried to bring me, to give me their positive energy. There was a lot of support despite what I could call the quality of the match.

I lived through this experience. I tried to make the most of it, but it was difficult because I could feel that I was not going to go further. Despite what I was trying, I couldn't do what I wanted.

So I'm disappointed for me and for the public. So no Philippe Chatrier this year but it's my fault for not going further.

Q. Would you say the panic came because of the preparation of the match? Did you sleep badly?
CAROLINE GARCIA: No. We prepared well yesterday, this morning, the warmup was okay. I had my tactics. But I didn't manage to implement it in the court.

Q. Do you still need the habit of getting eighths, fourths, and a semi in a Grand Slam?
CAROLINE GARCIA: Well, I wasn't playing that bad in the latest Grand Slams, because I was either in the round of 16 or quarterfinals. So it's not the first time for me.

But she won two Grand Slams, she was No. 1. She has more experience than I have, but I don't think my inexperience is what made the difference today.

Q. At 3-5, there was a great dropshot, counter dropshot. Did you feel the match was overturning at that point?
CAROLINE GARCIA: Yes, it was important to break back and to get as close as possible. But in my game I was still years away from her, years apart. At least I was trying to fight, but in the quality of my game, the quality of my strokes, I was not up to the level.

Q. What were the words of your father?
CAROLINE GARCIA: For the moment there were none. It was too hard.

Q. How do you analyze this? What happens to you when you lose 6-1, 6-1 in Indian Wells or like today? What is necessary to change? I guess if you had the solution you wouldn't be here today.
CAROLINE GARCIA: Yes, that's what I was going to say.

Q. Do you have any thoughts about that?
CAROLINE GARCIA: Well, it's a bit difficult, because it's still very fresh in my mind, but I have thought about my previous match. I have thought about what happens. Sometimes you have reasons for things. Sometimes you try to find what went wrong.

We have tried to analyze things, but we haven't identified the actual cause that leads to these nonmatches, about the fact that sometimes I can't get into the match.

Q. We feel in your words that during the match you never believed in it. Was there a moment, for example in the second set, where you managed to believe in it?
CAROLINE GARCIA: Yes, I believed at the beginning of the match, when I started the second set, I thought, well, it's not because I have lost one set that it's lost.

But things were going very fast. I couldn't get the rhythm of her ball. I was moving too early in the rallies. At 5-3 I had an occasion to come back, and then I lost the first point Love-15, 15 all, 15-30. Every time I had a possibility of seizing an opportunity I was going the wrong way, and things were going too fast.

It's not that I didn't believe in it, but I didn't manage to overcome her.

Q. Do you feel it's more complex to win a point or a match in Roland Garros because of the pressure?
CAROLINE GARCIA: No, it's difficult to win a point whether you're in the middle of nowhere or here. You have to fight your opponent, whatever the tournament.

Q. Did you see the title of the Journal L'Equipe this morning, and did it have an influence on your match?
CAROLINE GARCIA: I saw it when I was coming back from the Lenglen, and I only saw it afterwards. It was very nice, this title, and I know that some people think I will never make it, but I'm sure I'm going to make it. One day I will make it.

Q. I wanted to come back to a sentence you mentioned earlier. It's another Grand Slam where you leave feeling that you haven't played as you wanted. If I remember, you lost to Konta last year. You had played well.
CAROLINE GARCIA: Yes, but in that match you're mentioning, I had a lot of opportunities which I couldn't seize. I was reacting more than I was acting.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297