Fresh off her 2025 retirement, Caroline Garcia took a candid look back at her career during an interview with coach Bryan Shelton on her Tennis Insider Club podcast, sharing highlights on social media Thursday.
The former world No. 4 reflected on the limitations of her aggressive playing style: “I should have added in my game more of an Option B because most of the time with my game, it was very risky. There were a lot of matches I lost that I could have won if I had been taught to be like, ‘Ok, today I have to put [the ball] in.’”
Garcia twice reached the Top 4 in the WTA rankings, winning the 2022 WTA Finals and reaching her only Grand Slam singles semifinal at that year’s US Open. While she captured two Grand Slam doubles titles, singles success at the majors proved elusive.
She credited her father, Louis-Paul Garcia, with instilling an aggressive mindset but admitted she never fully developed a more consistent backup strategy: “It was only one way for me to play, and it didn’t open me to another way … Maybe if I spent time doing it, I could have learned, and maybe those five matches a year would allow me to take one step further in the Slams.”
Garcia also discussed her transition to life beyond professional tennis. Having launched the Tennis Insider Club podcast in 2024 with then-boyfriend, now husband Borja Duran, she reflected on stepping away from the tour: “I don’t want to just play tennis just to play tennis … I cannot do it anymore. And that’s fine. At one moment, you have to take another way and open another chapter of your life. Hopefully, this new chapter is bringing me way more joy and light in my life.”
