"I should have brought a plan B to my game," Garcia discusses what she lacked to win a Grand Slam

Adrien Guyot

le 24/10/2025 à 12h06

2 min to read

Garcia Shelton

Former world number 4, Caroline Garcia ended her career after the US Open.

Garcia is now retired. Now 32 years old, the Frenchwoman, who won prestigious titles in her career such as the BJK Cup, WTA 1000s, and the WTA Finals, never truly managed to shine in Grand Slams despite a semi-final at the US Open in 2022.

In a discussion with Bryan Shelton, Ben's father, for his podcast Tennis Insider Club, Garcia discussed what, in her opinion, she lacked in her career to achieve at least one Major title.

"It is sometimes very difficult to understand what it means to win a Grand Slam tournament, and you don't really know what you need to do to win one. I should have brought a plan B to my game, because, most of the time, my game was very risky and there were many matches that I lost which I could have won if I had told myself: 'Okay, here, I just need to put the ball in the court.'

My father wanted me to be aggressive, to hit winners. But there were days when I wasn't feeling it, or I was too stressed. In those situations, I wasn't able to simply put the ball in the court and tell myself: 'Today, putting it in is enough, and tomorrow I can get back on the court and play a bit more my way.'

It was the only way I knew how to play, and it didn't open up other possibilities for me. It was as if I didn't know how to do it differently. Maybe through training, I could have learned another way of doing things, and maybe I would have only used it for five matches a year, but maybe those five matches a year would have allowed me to take an extra step in Grand Slam tournaments.

I think that's what I was missing, it's learning to have a plan B, but also having someone to tell me how to use it wisely and having the necessary confidence to put it into practice: the support of my team and, at the time, my father, to give me more options," Garcia stated on her podcast.