[Vocabulary] It "caught up" with her.

[beachboy]

Emma Raducanu says the "whole experience" of her run to the Wimbledon fourth round "caught up" with her but she is "feeling better" after Monday's mid-match retirement.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/tennis/57737252

What does "caught up with" mean in this sentence, and why is caught up between quotation marks?

 

[emsr2d2]

"whole experience", "caught up" and "feeling better" are in quotation marks because they are direct quotes of her words.
She used "caught up [with me]" to mean that the excitement and pressure of the tournament, with which she had been dealing well up to that point, suddenly hit her all at once and were too much for her. I watched that match and it was clear that she was having some kind of panic attack.

 

[beachboy]

Kind of similar to took its toll on me, isn't it?

 

[probus]

Not exactly. Taking a toll is generally a gradual process but "caught up with" usually implies suddenness.