Former world No 4 Caroline Garcia announces that 2025 will mark her final French Open appearance
Former world No 4 Caroline Garcia has announced that she will soon retire from professional tennis, with 2025 marking her final French Open appearance – stating that it is ‘time to say goodbye.’
The Frenchwoman collected 11 WTA titles over her career, including the 2022 WTA Finals, reaching the fourth spot in the ranking in September 2018.
Garcia’s best result at Grand Slam-level was a semi-final run at the US Open in 2022, also reaching a quarter-final at the French Open in 2017.
She was also a proficient doubles player, ranked as high as the world No 2 in women’s doubles.
“It’s time to say goodbye,” Garcia wrote on her Instagram account.
“After 15 years competing at the highest level, and more than 25 years putting pretty much every second of my life into it, I feel ready to start a new chapter.
“My tennis journey hasn’t always been easy. Since my early days, tennis has been much more than just winning or losing. It’s been love or hate. Happiness or anger.
“Still, I’m deeply grateful for this journey – for everything tennis has given me, and for how much it’s helped me become a strong, passionate, hard-working woman. But now, it’s time for something else. My body and my personal goals need it.
“Still, this is not over – not just yet. I have a few tournaments left. The first one is at home, at Roland Garros.”
My 14th consecutive time being part of it. And my last. So to all my tennis family who’ll be around: let’s meet one more time, to dream, and fight together. In the coming days, there will be more time to share what’s next for me.
“But for now, I just want to focus on living these last weeks as a tennis pro to the fullest.”
Garcia will begin her last French Open campaign against Bernarda Pera, with Donna Vekic or Anna Blinkova awaiting in the second round.
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Just a few years ago, Garcia bravely acknowledged that she had been suffering from bulimia, which started as a result of painful losses and a recurring foot injury.
“Everyone is different. Some will stop eating, and for me it was the opposite: I used to take refuge in food,” the Frenchwoman told L’Equipe in 2023.
“You feel so empty, so sad, that you need to fill yourself. It came from the distress of not managing to do what I wanted to do on court, of not winning anymore, of suffering physically.
“Eating would appease me for a few minutes. We all know it does not last but it was an escape route. When you’re alone, it’s harder to control. In tennis, you spend a lot of time alone in your room. It’s how it often happened.”
It remains unclear as to where Garcia will – ultimately – end her career.
