Caroline Garcia has formally ended her doubles partnership with Kristina Mladenovic to focus on her singles career.
News of the split was confirmed by Mladenovic, who published a statement on her social media account. Last year the pair won the French Open doubles title, becoming the first female all-french duo to win in Roland Garros since 1972. During a highly successful 2016, Garcia and Mladenovic also won three other WTA titles and reached the final at the US Open.
“Caroline Garcia informed me of her desire to put an end to our partnership to focus on her singles career.” Mladenovic wrote on social media. “We have had lots of success together and I will keep very good memories. I would like to thank her and her team for all the great work we accomplished.”
Last year Mladenovic and Garcia was provisionally suspended by the French Tennis Federation following a fallout from the Rio Olympics. The two blamed their shock loss in the tournament on their federation, who Mladenovic described as ‘incompetent.’ Shortly before their first round match in the women’s doubles, the duo found out that they were required to wear identical outfits or risk the prospect of being disqualified. The situation sparked heavy criticism from both on social media, who was later penalised for ‘damaging’ the image of their national body. The suspension was lifted in September 2016.
In recent weeks there has been uncertainty over the relationship between the two. Following France’s loss to the Czech Republic in the Fed Cup, Mladenovic made headlines for criticising her team mates lack of commitment towards the team event. At the time French media interpreted Mladenovic’s outspoken remarks as a direct attack on Garcia until she clarified her remarks a week later.
“Just to clarify that thing, I never mentioned her name, and it was not about her. I just answered the question that it was about the missing players in the team, and I was not mentioning Caroline Garcia,” Mladenovic said according to Sport 360.
“I was comparing – I was just simply comparing Amandine Hesse with Oceane Dodin, who is also an upcoming talented young player, and she never played for Fed Cup. She had one tie with us and never gave her all, and, you know, build something in the team.”
With Garcia focusing on cracking the top-20 for the first time in her career, Milanovic confirmed that she will shortly announce who her new doubles partner will be.
— Kristina Mladenovic (@KikiMladenovic) 5 March 2017
