By Erik Gudris | @atntennis | Friday, May 26, 2023
For gamers competing of their international locations’ Major, there’s at all times a combination of delight and strain to carry out nicely in entrance of the house followers.
That’s very true at Roland Garros the place the Parisian crowd can both be a participant’s greatest cheerleader or their greatest critic.
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No. 4 seed Caroline Garcia finds herself in new territory this yr in Paris as the very best and solely seeded French singles participant on both the boys’s or ladies’s attracts.
With French singles champions on the occasion few and much between (Mary Pierce was the final French singles champion in 2000), may Garcia be the one to boost the trophy for her first-ever Grand Slam singles title?
It’s one thing she’s actually dreamed about ever since she was a child.
“It’s hard to exactly remember when it was, but I definitely remember coming back from school when I was less than 10, and so yeah, when you’re coming back to school it’s like kind of snack time and you were always in front of the TV watching Roland Garros, and it was a routine of every day, and weekend final,” Garcia mentioned in a pre-tournament press convention. “It was always special, you know, to see the champion lifting that trophy, and they were getting emotional, and I was getting emotional in front of my TV (smiling).
“So, yeah, it’s good memories and maybe one day I will be there.”
🎙️😁 Caroline Garcia était devant la presse ce vendredi pour le Media Day
L’occasion d’évoquer sa préparation avant de défier Xiyu Wang au premier tour 👀 https://t.co/yxqrFGUCc1 pic.twitter.com/U5ulinX3tu
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 26, 2023
While Garcia has received the ladies’s doubles title in Paris twice, together with final yr, expectations for her to do nicely this yr in singles have elevated exponentially after her breakout 2022 season. That included reaching profitable Cincinnati all the way in which from qualifying, reaching the US Open semifinals after which culminating in her profitable the year-end WTA Finals that boosted her again into the highest tier of the game.
So far 2023 has been an up-and-down season for Garcia. Though she’s reached two finals in Monterrey and Lyon, she hasn’t made a lot noise on the greater occasions.
Garcia realizes that it is going to be exhausting to copy all her success final yr. After admitting earlier within the yr in Australia that she was inserting an excessive amount of strain on herself, she says now she trusts the method.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s sport, it’s tennis. Obviously it’s not easy to do a copy-paste of what is happening in the couple months before,” Garcia said. “But it is also part of it, and last year made me able to do some great things at the end of the year, starting very low.
“So I’m just trying to be patient, having a good mindset and work hard and being positive, as positive as I can. Yeah, learn from what I can.”
Garcia faces a difficult opening spherical towards China’s Wang Xiyu who not too long ago the spherical of 16 in Rome. Garcia has by no means performed the rising Chinese star however is prepared for the problem.
“Yeah, I never played against her, I believe. I didn’t remember juniors or something maybe,” Garcia mentioned in regards to the matchup. She then added, “She played a good tournament I think in Rome. So she’s definitely confident. But I will try to play my game, be aggressive, and adjust a little bit if necessary.”
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