French No. 1 Caroline Garcia, who ended a failed 2024 season at the end of September, “asked the question” not to return to the circuit because it does not “couldn’t stand anything anymore”she said, Monday December 9, in an interview on the website of The Team .
“At the end of every game, win or loss, I was just relieved. I no longer knew why I was playing. I was obsessed with the rankings”confides the former world No. 4, falling to 48e rang.
She also says she had a bad experience with her coronation at the WTA Masters at the end of 2022, crowning a season in apotheosis.
“Three days later, I was just as empty inside. On my record, it’s a magnificent star, but in my relationship with tennis, it was a huge black spot. Everything had become toxic and black”she said.
“I hated the person I was becoming”
At the Australian Open in early 2023, “Every match was a nightmare. I had a shitty attitude, I was bad with my team… I hated the person I was becoming. It exhausted me”rembobine-t-elle.
Currently training with Ivan Ljubicic, high level director at the French tennis federation (FFT), she will appear at the Australian Open (January 12-26, 2025), first Grand Slam of the season, without a coach , after her separation from Bertrand Perret in September.
“For the moment, I don’t want to be responsible for a team. Sometimes I felt like I had the weight of my staff on my back. There, I find my freedom”she justifies.
For this new season, she plans to play “just the big tournaments”explaining having done “a mistake in taking anti-inflammatories for too long” to treat his shoulder.
“Maybe I’ll end up making the qualifiers, but I prefer that to playing every week. In any case, I will not return to the Challengers. At some point, I want to do something else in my life, start a family. I don’t see myself playing for another five years, that’s for sure, and I don’t want to struggle on the secondary circuit”she said.
