When Passion Meets Performance Episode 2: Caroline Garcia | Rolex x WTA.

For sure the young Caroline suffered a lot and was a bit too isolated from the world and from who I am really and for me it was sometimes tough but also because I went through that those moments you know it made me who I am today and it made me meet the people I have in my life now so I think I'm proud. My passion for tennis evolved a lot through the years for sure. You know I have a lot of admiration on my adventure and it's one of the things I'm working on you know it's to be proud of my career that I have already. I think from my biggest wins especially WTA finals I understood that I will not get happiness and joy from my tennis. That obviously was important and it will give me emotion on the moment on the next couple of days but that it would not probably heal the hole that I had inside myself and that I had to work on that and it was two different things. It was tennis and then the real Caroline who had to do her own work. I think for me Berlin in 2024 was a big turn moment and I was just not seeing myself able to play and I decided you know like if I'm not able to play like I will rather go back home. I felt bad because I was happier to go back home than to play the tournament which is not the point for a professional tennis player but the weight of my shoulder for me was a sign that I had to do something different and I had to think about my own health first and what I wanted in my heart. For me it was important to understand why I was playing tennis. The adventure in the podcast it kind of started to heal me. One thing that I learned you know like building an identity outside of only being a tennis player was very important for me. For many many years you know I only identified myself as able to play tennis. I was good at that and that was a big challenge and it was obviously getting outside of my comfort zone for someone kind of shy and sometimes a bit close you know it was not easy to be on the other side to go ask people questions. I want to be friends with the other ones. I want to be me. I want to be able to give them a hug for some reason if they are sad. People trust you and they are showing vulnerability in front of you in an interview and that's also why I didn't want to leave last year. I wanted to be able to come back and really show who I am. Before I was like very serious on practice court. I didn't really feel comfortable sometimes with playing with all the girls. I was playing a lot with eating partner. In the last couple of months I changed a lot my view about it. I do a lot of practice with girls. I'm having a great time and it's actually kind of funny when I compare myself to a couple of years before when I was like not talking. I was just like serious about it and just looking forward to go back and play again. I can say I'm happy to practice again. I'm not a very good mover on clay courts but I kind of enjoy it. You know when we move to clay after Miami I'm always like happy to go back there and like trying to figure it out. It's very physical. It's mental also because there is always some bad bounces. The lines can be tricky. There is always trying to bring one more ball and tactical part with a drop shot and everything is more important. Well it's a work on progress you know to not get mad and frustrated every single mistake I do you know. I have a tough relationship with Roland Garros. You know every year I'm super motivated and I want to do my best because it's a tournament who means a lot to me. I've been there when I was a little teenager girl you know. I was just dreaming to play on court Philippe Chatry. Now I am on the other side and I'm playing and most of the time when I arrive there you know like I kind of forget about that little girl. I just want to compete and get the best result I can but I have to be clear what I want to do and obviously in the past we saw some very aggressive players like Roland Garros. If my head and my mental are clear and I'm able to play as freely as I can and maybe remember that little girl you know like if I would be able to see through that the eyes of this little girl would be good. There are so many ways to define excellence. I think already being a tennis player is part of being excellent because the amount of people succeeding is very low in a very tough environment trying to push every single day and make the best of every single day with all the sacrifice and the tough moment the pain you can have in your body. Every day you're trying to make your game slightly better or your body slightly faster or stronger. It's such like little details will define excellence.