How Caroline Garcia has turned her tennis career around

Sport loves a comeback story, and in this one the protagonist is Caroline Garcia, a French tennis player.

Having been ranked as high as number four in the world, called the future of the sport by Andy Murray and seemingly on her way to major glory, Garcia fell out of the top 20... and then the top 50.

Last year she entered her home Grand Slam at Roland-Garros, commonly called the French Open, as the world No. 79, her lowest ranking since 2014, when she was still only 21.

But in a remarkable turnaround, she would end 2022 as the world No. 4, matching her career-high. Four titles in the span of four months – including the season-ending WTA Finals in Ft. Worth, Texas – buoyed her back to the top of the game.

And back into the conversation among female threats at the majors.

“If you don’t move forwards you move backwards,” a reflective Garcia said at the close of her return-to-form campaign, having gone 34-9 in the second half of the season.

“I think it’s super important to always keep improving,” she added. “[Going backwards] is not something we want to do in the team. I did it a couple of years ago and didn’t really enjoy the ride.”

Caroline Garcia: French hope at Roland-Garros

It’s been over two decades since Mary Pierce captured France its most recent homegrown singles title at Roland-Garros, winning it in 2000. On the men’s side, Yannick Noah’s glittering 1983 triumph is celebrating a 40^th anniversary.

Can Garcia be the one to snap those streaks?

It won’t be easy: The recent generations of French stars have not found their best form at home. Amelie Mauresmo, a two-time Slam champ, never made it past the quarters. Gael Monfils, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet reached just three semi-finals among them (Tsonga twice in 2013 and 2015; Monfils in 2008).

Garcia has played the French 12 times, making the second week on three separate occasions, with her deepest run coming in 2017, when she made the final eight. It was that year that Garcia said helped her learn how to face the pressure of a home crowd better.

“When I walk on court, you feel a little bit tension, but it's only positive stress,” she told reporters after losing to Karolina Pliskova. “I learned these couple weeks [from] all that has happened. I tried to focus on m game and not ‘What is wrong? ‘What if I win?’ ‘What is going to happen?’ I don't really pay attention to what people are saying and just play and enjoy.”

She has also tasted immense victory at home, winning the Roland-Garros doubles title with countrywoman Kristina Mladenovic in 2016 and again just last year.

How did Caro ‘fly again’?

Garcia has one of the most recognisable big-match celebrations in tennis: She drops her racket courtside, puts her arms straight out like airplane wings and runs into a full air-time jump.

#FlywithCaro, comes the hashtag on many of her social media posts. But how, exactly, did Garcia learn to fly again, having fallen as she did in the WTA rankings?

“I doubted” myself, Garcia said in August of last year after winning the WTA 1000 title in Cincinnati. “[Doubt] is always coming to your ears one way or another, and sometimes from people who are well known. It's always affects you.”

But Garcia had several challenges related to her career, too: As her confidence lagged and she began losing more matches, she battled bulimia, she said, discussing in an interview the solace she sought in food when she faced challenging times on tour. A struggle she called “a crisis.”

“I took refuge in food,” she told French newspaper L’Equipe. “Those were moments of crisis. You feel so empty, so sad, that you need to fill yourself up. It was the distress of not being able to do what I wanted to do on the court, not winning.”  

But winning happens for Garcia primarily when her game style is firing: She’s an all-out attacking player, known not only for her brutal power but her court positioning, where she stands atop the baseline in an effort to take time away from her opponents.

She said she re-committed to that style midway through 2022, having altered her strategy over the previous few years to be more passive, playing more defense than offense.

“Playing [my] game style is not always working,” she admitted. “You have to have a true belief in it. If not, mistakes are coming quite quickly.”

Garcia: 'I want my tennis to speak for me'

Regardless of her Roland-Garros fortnight (she had to fight hard to overcome world No. 62 Wang Xiyu in the first round), Garcia has proven over the last 12 months that champions can rise again. And do so with a smile on their face.

“What I like is just let my results speak for me, and what I do on court is the most important,” Garcia said to start 2023. “I just want to let my tennis to speak for me.”

That has proven challenging again this year, where Garcia is 19-11 overall but just 4-3 in the clay season, the surface in which the French Open is held on.

She’s been busy since arriving in Paris, helping a women’s apparel company with a brand launch and signing autographs after practice at Roland-Garros, not to mention her countless French media commitments.

But in a video posted to her Instagram of said autograph-signing, Pharrell Williams’ “Happy” bopped as Garcia made the day of a group of young fans. For an athlete who will turn 30 later this year, she knows that said happiness off the court can only make her more lethal on it.

And if she can produce the kind of tennis she knows she’s capable of? ... watch out.