It’s yet another twist. When their collaboration had ended abruptly, in October 2022, tennis player Caroline Garcia decided to call on her former coach, Bertrand Perret. “We really had a great season together. [en 2022]. He understands my style of playexplains the Frenchwoman, losing momentum since the start of the season, in the columns of The Team. The way in which [il] helped me worked well and I want to continue the adventure like that. »
In 2022, the Strasbourgeois had indeed been the architect of the rebirth of the player. Injured and falling to 79th place in the world in May, Caroline Garcia then had a prolific end to the season: a doubles title at Roland-Garros with her compatriot Kristina Mladenovic, a semi-final at the US Open as well as four titles including the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati and the Masters bringing together the eight best players in the world. These results allowed her to regain fourth place in the WTA rankings, which she had already occupied in 2017.
“At the beginning of the year, when there were not the expected results and I saw my ranking go down, there was at home [Bertrand Perret] something positive and confidence”she confided to The Teamin September 2022.
Several sudden and unexpected departures
But while the Lyonnaise was back in the fore, the Strasbourgeois had suddenly announced the end of their collaboration. “In recent weeks there have been problems. They ended up spoiling the atmosphere and I preferred to stop. I do this job for fun and there were fewer of them”he explained to The Teamwithout expanding further on this surprising decision.
That didn’t stop Caroline Garcia from winning the biggest title of her career the following week. But the player has so far failed to regain such a level of performance. Still fourth in the world with two finals (lost) since the start of the season, she stopped in the eighth round at the Australian Open and, more recently, lost in the first round of the WTA 1000 in Miami ( UNITED STATES).
Since the end of January, Caroline Garcia no longer had a coach. Juan Pablo Guzman, who had replaced Bertrand Perret at short notice, was not seen again after the Australian Open. Instead, it was Louis-Paul Garcia, the father and trainer of the Frenchwoman, often considered omnipresent, who had resumed his place at the heart of the “project”.
In addition, the Lyonnaise has just lost another important member of her team since her physiotherapist, Laura Legoupil, another key figure in her rebirth, ended their collaboration after the defeat at the Florida tournament. A departure, there too, unexpected and sudden, announced by a rather icy post on the Instagram social network.
The return of Bertrand Perret to his staff is thus qualified as ” good news “ by Julien Benneteau, captain of the French team in the Billie Jean King Cup. “They have great memories, benchmarks between them with the season they experienced last year. I think Caro needs to restructure quickly”he reacted in The Team. The Frenchwoman will try to find a new lease of life during the clay-court season, which begins for her in Stuttgart (Germany) next week.
