“I started hating tennis and everything around it” – Garcia

Caroline Garcia had been harbouring the idea of retiring from professional tennis for long before announcing it on Friday, May 23—a couple of days before the French Open.

Garcia seemingly began detaching herself from the racquet sport in the second half of 2024 as she ended her season right after the Guadalajara Open due to lingering shoulder injury and deteriorating mental health.

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The Frenchwoman opened up on the same during her pre-tournament press conference at Roland Garros, revealing she convinced herself to continue beyond 2024 despite the physical and mental hardships.

“Last year when I had some down time, I didn’t know if I would come back or not, and when I did, when I stopped, I really needed it from an emotional point of view, because I started hating tennis and everything around it,” she said, adding:

“But I wanted to have some time off to think, to ponder about what I really felt about tennis. After some time, I understood that I really loved tennis and everything that it brought to me in my life, and I wanted to have another season.”

However, the former world No 4 couldn’t find her feet in the new season and losses piled up.

“But then physically it didn’t come up as I wanted, but I really wanted to play my way with the balance that, with the personal life and sports life, balance that I wanted to strike,” Garcia continued:

“You know, I love tennis. I will always love tennis. And then with everything that you need to do to be a top-level athlete like trips, physio, recovery, off-court, on-court sessions, I don’t have the strength anymore to do everything. I can’t do it anymore.”

caroline Garcia recalls childhood memories of Roland Garros

Caroline Garcia has accumulated a total of 19 trophies so far, with the dirt of Roland Garros holding her best exploits. She has won the coveted women’s doubles title in Paris twice (2016 and 2022) with Kristina Mladenovic.

Thus, she hopes for one last hurrah at the French Open, the tournament that shaped her childhood.

“It’s strange, but I knew that it would be the last one inside of me and so I prepped for it,” Garcia added in her presser. “I came to watch this tournament when I was a young girl. When I would go to school, you know, at 4:00 after school I would watch it on TV. It’s very special moments.

“I lived through very difficult moments, and that has forged me as a character, as a tennis player. When I won in doubles with Kristina twice, also in singles, I had wonderful moments. It is a special moment, and I hope that this year will be no exception.”

Garcia will start her singles campaign against American Bernarda Pera on Monday and undertake doubles duty alongside compatriot Diane Parry a couple of days later.

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