Retired French tennis participant Caroline Garcia has rejected a $270,000 sponsorship deal for her podcast from a betting firm, saying she chooses values over cash.
Garcia, who reached a career-high rating of No. 4, retired earlier this yr. She has stayed linked with the game by the Tennis Insider Membership podcast she created along with her husband Borja Duran.
“It wasn’t a straightforward “no,” particularly proper after retiring from tennis,” the 32-year-old Garcia mentioned on her social networks. “However we wish to construct a platform the place gamers really feel fully secure to be trustworthy, susceptible and open about something, with out strain or distraction.”
Garcia didn’t determine the corporate that supplied the deal.
Final yr on the US Open, Garcia drew consideration to the persistent drawback of cyberbullying in tennis — notably from individuals who wager on matches — after her first-round loss on the Grand Slam match.
“Over the previous two years of interviewing gamers, coaches, brokers and oldsters, one theme retains coming again repeatedly: betting has grow to be one of many greatest sources of strain, abuse and hate in fashionable sport,” she mentioned in her newest submit. “I don’t need Tennis Insider Membership to contribute, even not directly, to a system that fuels habit, destroys lives and turns athletes into each day targets.”
Garcia received 11 WTA titles and captured the WTA Finals crown in 2022, the identical yr she reached the US Open semifinals. She additionally received the French Open doubles title in 2016.
Her path hasn’t all the time been clean. Accidents, strain and a break from the game in 2022 examined her resolve. That very same yr she revealed she had struggled with consuming issues, triggered by the bodily ache of a foot harm and the emotional toll of the tour.
“Our mission is to inform actual tales from inside tennis, encourage folks and develop the game in a means that’s wholesome for athletes and followers,” Garcia added. “Taking betting cash would transfer us in the wrong way.”
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