Caroline Garcia – Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. There’s a happy lady.

CAROLINE GARCIA: Yeah.

Q. Tough match, wasn’t it? I mean, not just because of the rain but all the way through.

CAROLINE GARCIA: Yeah, when you play Carla, you know it’s going to be difficult. Physically you have to be ready. There were some very long rallies. I won couple of them.

Yeah, I mean, I stay positive all the match, and when I was done I keep fighting and try to, yeah, to play more aggressive, less mistake. It works well. Very happy to finish it. (Smiling.)

Q. I’m sure you heard the thunder and saw the skies.

CAROLINE GARCIA: Yeah, I check the weather just to know temperature and I thought, when is the rain? I ask my dad, and he say, Is it raining here?

He say maybe like two or three days a year. Yeah, it’s really happen. I mean, it was big rain.

Q. But right before the rain came we could hear the thunder the whole time. Were you focusing on that and just trying to wrap it up? How did you stay in the moment?

CAROLINE GARCIA: Like I was like 4-1 up. I had one point of 5-1 on easy ball, but it’s like sometime it happen and you just have to stay in the present. I mean, yeah, it have been very dark but not raining so you could stay like that and finally rain at 5-3. But it could go both way.

Q. You talked about it on the court, but can you tell us again for our transcript how it felt to come out and only three points away from finishing the match?

CAROLINE GARCIA: I mean, when I arrive on court I was pretty fine. Then when I had to start serving at 15-All — I mean, you still up, it the other one who have the pressure, but you never know is she going to change things or not?

Yeah, you have to serve pretty well, but yeah, just try to stay calm and fight on every ball and bring back and let her play the game. She had to take the risk. I was up.

Q. What did you do during the rain delay? It was like over four hours, I think.

CAROLINE GARCIA: I change, I eat, and I slept, and then I rewarm up.

Q. Just a word about Fed Cup. You have done well last month in the Fed Cup and France. The last time they won was in 2003 when they were No. 1.

CAROLINE GARCIA: Uh-huh.

Q. This new crop of players, you have inspiration with your captain, what goals do you have?

CAROLINE GARCIA: Yeah, it’s great to play Fed Cup. I love this competition. Yeah, we are a young team and we are pushing ourself to be better than the other one always. It’s good.

I know Kristina very long time. We have the same age. I think it’s good. We have some high goal, but we know from where we are coming. Like two years ago we was fighting to stay in Group II. We won against USA like almost by miracle and then same against Italy last year.

Still, we know where we are coming from, and we just take match by match. Of course we all want to win the Fed Cup one day, but we don’t know when it’s going to happen. We still are very young team and we are looking long time.

Q. Have you all spoken about it that you want to achieve it by a certain time?

CAROLINE GARCIA: I mean, as soon as you can do it, it’s the best. But we all know to win Fed Cup most of the time there is one or two top 10, and we are only like three in the top 30.

So of course sometimes we can be top 10, but, like, we are amble and know where we are. We will think to Fed Cup in April. It’s long time.

Q. Tack a little bit about Amélie as captain.

CAROLINE GARCIA: She’s a terrible captain. She’s really bad. (Smiling.)

Q. St. Louis was your first, wasn’t it?

CAROLINE GARCIA: Yeah.

Q. You girls rallied pretty impressively there.

CAROLINE GARCIA: Yeah, we had good connections in the beginning with Amélie on court. Yeah, she know women’s tennis like perfectly.

She’s learning on us, different. Now we have like three or four competition together, so when she’s on court which mean she know what to tell me and she know how I like my time. And, I mean, she’s very positive.

Like I say, she want to win the Fed Cup, but, yeah, it’s not like right now you have to do it. She know it was difficult in the past for us, so we just take match by match.

Q. What do you think about the guys? They are going to play in Guadeloupe instead of in France. What do you think about that?

CAROLINE GARCIA: Well, it’s good for them, good for the people from Guadeloupe. I don’t know. I mean, it’s complicated to organize over there but it’s great. They are lucky to be able to play there.

It’s their decision they want to stay outside so you don’t have too many choice. France have to change to play outside over there, so it’s good for people who like the tennis there.

Q. Also good if you go to Indian Wells and Miami?

CAROLINE GARCIA: It’s closer, yeah. But yeah, I mean, if they wanted to do this way, I’m happy for them.

Q. Talk about playing doubles with Kiki. Is that purely focusing on Olympics or no?

CAROLINE GARCIA: No, no, like when we ask each other to play doubles, of course it was Olympic/Fed Cup, but we have some goals to win Grand Slam and be a good team all the year long. There is tournament every single week, and when we walk on court we want to win every match and just not only the Olympics.

It’s going to be a very tough competition when you see — there are so many great teams by country. So, yeah, we just play often and try to improve every match.

Q. Just talk about what kind of goals you have for yourself this season and are you eyeing a certain breakthrough or target for ranking?

CAROLINE GARCIA: Yeah, I have my target, but I keep it for myself. (Smiling.)

I just want to improve, and like I played today, try to be more solid on every point. Don’t do too much or depend on the match and on the tournament. Sometimes I was able to beat some good players, but then I was terrible the other days. So just work hard and try to be constant every year, all the year.

Q. Your next opponent, can you talk about them separately?

CAROLINE GARCIA: I don’t know who I play.

Q. JJ or Petkovic.

CAROLINE GARCIA: You really want me to think now? It’s going to be impossible.

Q. Did Amélie have the baby with her at Fed Cup?

CAROLINE GARCIA: Yeah.

Q. Did you have to babysit? Or what was that like?

CAROLINE GARCIA: Yeah, he was there. Yeah, he was there all week with his T-shirt, with “France.”