By Richard Pagliaro | Monday, August 25, 2025
NEW YORK—With one final wave of her racquet, Caroline Garcia closed the curtain on her career.
The 31-year-old Garcia, who starred in so many Sundays on courts all over the world, said good-bye to tennis on a sun-splashed Monday in New York City.
World No. 65 Kamilla Rakhimova defeated Garcia 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in today’s US Open first round.
The former world No. 4 took a wild card into Flushing Meadows and says farewell to the sport three years after her run to the US Open semifinals.
“Yeah, obviously it’s not really easy to step on the court when you don’t know it’s your last match or if you win maybe you have another last match,” Garcia said. “It’s kind of a tricky moment. But a lot of emotion before the match, even if I got a lot of emotion out in Roland Garros.
“But, yeah, it meant a lot for me to play one more time US Open.”
In a glorious career, Garcia won 11 WTA singles titles, including defeating Aryna Sabalenka to capture the 2022 WTA Finals championship.
Though she never contested a major singles final, Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic captured the Roland Garros doubles championship twice. Garcia was also 2016 US Open doubles runner-up alongside Mladenovic, one of 11 trips to doubles finals in her career.
An aggressive player who scored success on all surfaces, Garcia says good-bye to the game with gratitude.
“It’s kind of weird to say, but, you know, I’m very happy,” Garcia said. “It was a great run. I did agreat thing on court, and I went until what I could achieve. You know, obviously you can always achieve more, and I was dreaming of achieving more. But I’m very happy and in peace with my decision to move forward with my life and close the chapter of being a tennis player.”
Last month, Garcia, married long-time boyfriend Borja Durán in a beautiful and joyous ceremony.
The happy couple shared exquisite images from their wedding ceremony on social media.
“The most beautiful day of our lives,” Garcia posted on social media.
The July 19th wedding came nearly 13 months to the day after the couple announced their engagement.
Borja Durán is a Catalan university professor who has lived in Barcelona.
The couple launched their own podcast, The Tennis Insider Club, last year.
They’ve interviewed several stars, including Gael Monfils, Alize Cornet, Andrey Rublev and Victoria Azarenka for the podcast. Garcia said she plans to continue producing the podcast and remain connected to the sport.
“I think I want to keep going the podcast. Obviously, you know, it’s little by little it’s growing,” Garcia said. “We believe we are doing some good things and giving back, sharing tips, sharing behind the scenes,sharing tips from the best players and coaches.
“If it can help some young players out there, like, it would be the best reward I could get. Yeah, now I see a future for myself in tennis, and 12 months ago it was not the case.”
Garcia, who famously celebrated victories with mimicking a jet plane in flight said she’s looking forward to being grounded and living life in one place.
“Not much planned. We have a wonderful wedding of my brother-in-law to attend, so some greatemotion, more emotions,” Garcia said. “But not much. We want to enjoy a bit, relax, stay in one place. Get out all the things from the suitcase for once and just be chill.”
