Garcia remembers: "All the media pounced on me".
Caroline Garcia is having a very difficult season.
With the exception of a quarter-final in Miami and a semi-final in Rouen, the Frenchwoman has won very little.
This lack of confidence, combined with her forward-thinking style of play, makes Garcia one of the most disappointing players of the 2024 season, especially given her immense potential.
Asked about this, Garcia explains that, since her debut, media pressure hasn't helped her: "With Murray's tweet saying I was going to be the next world number one, all the media pounced on me even though I was only 17.
My style of play wasn't ready yet, I was still a child, very raw. At 17, you're more or less mature, and I wasn't very mature.
I was still pretty young in my head, and it's true that I felt enormous pressure, but I wasn't ready to deal with it or see beyond it.
Sometimes, when you play at a very high level, you want to reproduce that level of play.
You want to achieve certain things, but you also need to let go, to trust yourself, to relax.
It took me some time to overcome this pressure. It was also a period of generational change in tennis, and there was a lot of light on me when I wasn't yet where I belonged."