An Emotional Caroline Garcia After Loss to Cibulkova in Madrid
Niall Clarke, Tennis Atlantic
It has been an incredible and unpredictable start to the women’s side of the Mutua Madrid Open with many of the top seeds bowing out in the opening two rounds. However one of the more interesting matches came in a top quarter that see’s not a single seeded player left in the section.
On Aranxta Sanchez Vicario stadium, Dominika Cibulkova and Caroline Garcia engaged in a near two hour roller coaster which the Slovakian eventually won 0-6, 6-3, 6-4
The Frenchwoman was on fire in the opening nine games, blasting winners as Cibulkova struggled to keep up. Garcia raced through the first set 6-0 and looked comfortable with a break at 3-0, but then a dramatic shift in momentum saw Cibulkova win the next six games to level the score at one set all.
The third set was fought hard by both players, but Cibulkova held her nerve, and serve, to put score line pressure on Garcia with a 5-4 lead. The 22-year-old then dropped serve with a disappointing double fault to round off a disappointing loss.
“It was not very good actually, and it’s sad I lost today.” aid a tearful Garcia.
“I was good in the beginning, but I lost a bit of my game and she started to play good, and I changed a little bit of my game and it didn’t go where I wanted it to.”
The clay season is big for the Frenchwoman as it all leads up to her home Grand Slam, Rolland Garros. The French Open was the stage where a 17 year old Garcia pronounced herself to the tour by almost defeating Maria Sharapova on Phillippe Chatrier court in 2011. Five years has past since that second round contest, and her home slam has not always been kind to her.
So how does she feel about her game as we fast approach the second Grand Slam of the year?
“My game is just sometimes not going the way I want. I work a lot outside the court and we will see how I play at the French Open, but don’t have a lot of expectations there”, Garcia said.
Despite some disappointing losses at the French Open, the WTA world number 49 won a tournament in Limoges last year and has played well in the Fed Cup in front of her home crowd. However, previous experiences at Roland Garros still play on her mind.
“A lot has happened over there. Sometimes I have played well in the past and sometimes I have had a bad draw in the first round, and last year was not a good match for me, but it can happen everywhere so we will see how this one goes.”
Along with her friend Kristina Mladenovic and compatriot Alize Cornet, there will be a lot of pressure on the French contingent to perform, but first Garcia will finish off her doubles campaign in Madrid then head to Rome next week in the company of her minions.
“I don’t know if I am a big fan (laughs), but I find them funny and I like them.”
Tennis Atlantic 
She is so talented but French players,men or women,are sometimes wonderfully talented physically but often relatively poor under pressure, not just at French, but careers overall. Tsonga and Noah may be an exception and perhaps Pierce, but she was not a great mover or a genius level talent like others. From Leconte to Gasquet to Monfils to Caroline, mental game has always been not just average but poor. These 3 all had talent to be the best player in the game (Stich from Germany was another), but not enough mental stillness to perform even at a level to win 1 or 2 Slams (unlike Stich) much less get to #1. Caroline has time especially these days when careers last longer but in 5 years since she has not had even remotely impressive results to think she will ever produce Slam wins, much less get to #1. And like Leconte, and Gasquet and Pioline that gap is all mental in tight conditions, the other players, even lesser players, perform better.
It’s a shame because these players all have magic in their hands and bodies and beautiful games that I would love to see come to fruition, as Federer, Sampras (not quite as magical), and McEnroe did in their careers. Henin and Hingis also.
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thank you for your videos and articles. Caroline Garcia could be so good if she can only focus on her game, not caring about medias or other kind of pressure.
Even if she lost that match against cibulkova I think this will be a good lesson to her, a tough one but the tour is itself so tough.
the french crowd will cheer for her but she has to go there with a positive spirit, they are here for her when she needs them but she has to fight no matter what happens here. Every point is important on clay.
wish her to find this positive spirit when she’ll be in Roland Garros. She has the game to go very far here.
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