MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAú

March 25, 2024

Caroline Garcia

Press Conference

C. GARCIA/C. Gauff

6-3, 1-6, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Caroline, that was a big win for you today. Can you share your thoughts on the match.

CAROLINE GARCIA: Yeah, 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.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Certain things in tennis is matchups, and you do seem to have a game that gives Coco trouble. What is it you think about your game that challenges her more than maybe other players?

CAROLINE GARCIA: Yeah, I think you're right. I try to always be very aggressive and take some time away. Looks like Coco doesn't really like it.

We had some good battle in the past, and I always try to go as much as I can with confidence and conviction in my shot. To have a tie record with Coco give me confidence that I have to go for it, especially after the match of yesterday with Naomi. I try to take as much time away as I can against her.

Q. You mentioned that it's been a tough couple of months starting the year. Have you been working on anything specific? How do you deal with that and come into an event like this where now you're in the quarterfinals?

CAROLINE GARCIA: Yeah, you try to deal with it every single week, every single day. You know, you try to work hard season after season. 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 relation with tennis to balance well, you know, like, your professional life and personal.

I think we have been able to do some good times. You know, on the practice courts in Indian Wells after the loss against Maria, I was a bit down and then, you know, we did some good practice, we saw she played well. So my team was, like, You see? It was not that bad. (Smiling.)

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.

Q. I think that's your first win against a top-10 opponent for quite a while, end of 2022, I think. Is that something you were thinking about a little bit? How important is it for you to beat that level of opponent for your confidence?

CAROLINE GARCIA: Yeah, it is good, you know, 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.

Q. Your thoughts about the next match? Your possible opponents are playing right now, right there. You might play another American. What are your thoughts? Maybe another American.

CAROLINE GARCIA: Yeah, you know, it's a quarterfinal match. Either player is going to arrive with confidence and with motivation to still doing good, like me, you know.

I had some tough battle against both players. Cirstea, she is doing some damage lately too with me (smiling). It's a good match. I'm looking forward to play either of them.

I just want to be focused on my game what I can do and at the end try my best and walk out of the court proud of the effort.

Q. You talk about playing aggressive, but the third set you were really calm to really just put the game away overall in the third set. What stood out to you?

CAROLINE GARCIA: What?

Q. What stood out to how you played in the third set in terms of the way to win the game?

CAROLINE GARCIA: Did you think I was less aggressive?

Q. No, you talk about playing aggressive. So I was saying in the third set, you were very calm to put the game away.

CAROLINE GARCIA: Yeah, I mean, in the second set I maybe was a bit slower and she started to play stronger, faster, and the difference was made quite quickly on little points. Then I managed to put more first serve which always help obviously for me and also on the preparation of the other ones.

Then really, like, go for my shots, trying to, yeah, to take more risk, go more to the net following my shots. You know, the shot come out of the racquet a little bit faster, a little bit stronger. You know, I have to go for it. Coco can be a great defender. I was ready for some passing shots, some good forehand, and sometimes it happened and I just have to move on and keep going for it.

Q. Two questions. First one, obviously following up and playing a match after you get a big, emotional win can get very, very tricky. I know you know that. Curious what the last kind of 12, 24 hours were like after the Naomi win? What was the key to being able to play at a high level again today and not have a letdown? And the second question is if you're concerned at all with the shoulder at all.

CAROLINE GARCIA: You know, sometimes if we look at my past, if I don't have too much time to think, it's much better (smiling).

So, yeah, I mean, obviously I was super happy and very proud of the match of yesterday. Tennis was good, but mainly about managing the emotion and the mindset out there as things we want to work more on. That was great.

But after, you know, like you move on, you know, it's kind of late, you have some time before coming on-site and just try to balance it, like I say, and take your time also to come on-site. And playing the top player, it's what I was looking for in the last couple of weeks. It's where you can learn the most.

So I was super excited to play Coco on the stadium here. I know it was going to be a great opportunity to play my game and see what I can do. Yeah, I arrived quite relaxed, which is great (smiling).

Yeah, after the shoulder, yeah, 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.