“The entire tennis world said she would be No. 1” - Mouratoglou on rise of Garcia after initial hype following Sharapova win

Caroline Garcia won the biggest trophy of her career recently at the WTA Finals and Patrick Mouratoglou discussed it.

The French player upset Maria Sharapova back in 2014 at Roland Garros which got everyone buzzing about the new super talented player. Mouratoglou remembers that time well and referenced it in his talk explaining how the expectations were high:

"I think it was very difficult for Caroline in the past because the expectations were huge. We all remember that match she played against Sharapova. The entire tennis world said she would be No. 1."

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Garcia took a few more years after that to break out initially winning back-to-back WTA 1000 trophies and getting to the top 10. Her career then faltered as she managed a tremendous comeback this year to go further then she ever went in a surprising sudden rise. Mouratoglou broke down the allure of Garcia adding:

"People get completely crazy with her without really knowing her. People were saying it's not necessary to take so much risk, it's stupid, she doesn't understand tennis and a lot of criticism. Especially about the father not knowing tennis, not understanding tennis. So I think it hurt them a lot and that's why it took so long. (sic)"