Caroline Garcia, to coach Bryan Shelton: I wish my tennis had an “Option B”

Fresh off her 2025 retirement, Caroline Garcia took a frank look at her career in an interview with coach Bryan Shelton for her Tennis Insider Club podcast, sharing highlights from the episode to her social media on Thursday.

“I should have added in my game more of an Option B because most of the time with my game, it was very risky,” the former world No. 4 reflected. “There were, I think, a lot of matches that I lost that I could have been able to win 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 season-ending WTA Finals back in 2022 after reaching her first and only Grand Slam singles semifinal at that year’s US Open. Though the French star captured a pair of major trophies in women’s doubles, Grand Slam success in singles ultimately proved elusive for Garcia, who hung up her racquets earlier this summer.

Working with a myriad of coaches throughout her career, Garcia honed her game with father Louis-Paul, who remained a part of her team even as others took on the role of primary coach.

“My dad wanted me to be aggressive, do winners, but there are some days when either I was not feeling it or I was too stressed, and I was not able to do it. I didn’t know how to put it in, that maybe putting it in is good enough, and tomorrow I could step on court again and go back to my way,” Garcia continued.

“It was only one way for me to play, and it didn’t open me to another way. It was like, I don’t know how to do the rest. Maybe if I spent time doing, maybe I could have learned, and maybe I would have only used it for five matches a year, but maybe those five matches a year will allow me to do one step more in the Slams. So, I think that’s what I missed: learning an Option B but also having someone to tell me how to do an Option B and have the confidence I could do it. The support from my team around and, at that time, my father, to give me more options.”

The advice could prove salient for Shelton, who has coached son Ben through a stellar ATP breakthrough, culminating with a Masters 1000 victory at the National Bank Open in August. In contention to qualify for his first Nitto ATP Finals, Shelton is in the process of working his way back from a shoulder injury he suffered at the US Open; the American lost in the second round of the Swiss Indoors Basel to Spanish nemesis Jaume Munar—falling to 0-3 in their head-to-head.

Garcia launched the *Tennis Insider Club* podcast in 2024 alongside then-boyfriend, now husband Borja Duran. Garcia and Duran tied the knot after Wimbledon this year and spoke eagerly about her next chapter weeks later at the Cincinnati Open.

“I don’t want to just play tennis just to play tennis. I’ve been at the top and what it takes to be at the top again, I don’t have the strength and I don’t know if it’s motivation but it’s just like, 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.”