After the defeat of Gaël Monfils in the quarter-finals against the Italian Berrettini on Thursday, French honor rests on the sole shoulders of Alizé Cornet at the Australian Open tennis tournament. At 32, she is playing in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday (midnight in France) and for the first time a quarter-final of a Grand Slam tournament. A look back in five figures on the career of a player who started off at top speed but often ended up in the ditch.
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This is Alizé Cornet’s first Grand Slam quarter-final
At 32, she is playing her 63rd major tournament. The sixtieth in a row. The first was in 2005 at Roland-Garros. She was then 15 years old, the youngest player in the tournament. She had been taken out in the second round by her idol, Amélie Mauresmo. We have not often seen Alizé Cornet point the end of his racket in the second week in Grand Slam, more often subscribed to eliminations in the first or second rounds. In 2009, she had not been far from the feat, already in Melbourne; against the Russian Dinara Safina, then 3rd in the world, she had harvested two match points in the round of 16.
160,600
his number of followers on Twitter
Very active on social networks, Cornet is not torrents of warm water. So she was heavily criticized for a tweet of support for Novak Djokovic at the start of the tournament, stressing that the Serb “is the first to defend the players and no one defended him”. Cornet was also one of the first to express her concern for the Chinese player Peng Shuai, who disappeared from the radar for a time after accusing a leader of the Chinese CP of rape. “I usually open it when something bothers me, and I think the world needed a player to take a stand on this serious subject,” she explained in Melbourne. Before specifying about: “I know from a reliable source that she is not in any physical danger. I’m worried about what will become of her, how will she evolve after that? When will she be truly free? So we’re going to say that she is not in danger for her life. And I want to say given the circumstances, it’s almost already reassuring. We must not let go either and remain united in one way or another.
She also marked her singularity by taking advantage of her forced shutdown in 2020, due to confinement, to write a book, Without compromise. A return to his childhood, his career, his city, without playing hide and seek with his faults. The opportunity also to denounce the machismo of the world of tennis of which she was the victim at the US Open, sanctioned for having removed her t-shirt to put it back in place between two games. Pinned for unsportsmanlike behavior, she had not failed to point out that men could undress (from the top) at will on a court.
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such as the number of head-to-head encounters between Cornet and his opponent in the quarter-finals
This Thursday, Alizé Cornet has an appointment with the American Danielle Collins, seeded number 27. “This match will be a tragedy, that’s for sure”, warned the French tenniswoman, describing the American “like a lioness”. “She puts so much intensity that she impresses me a little. Me too, I play with intensity, but she is of an even higher intensity.
Now 28, Collins focused on her studies until 2016 before turning professional. She won her first matches on the WTA Tour in 2018 and had not won a Grand Slam match in five attempts before reaching the semi-finals in Melbourne in 2019. This semi-final remains her best Grand Slam result . If Cornet is renowned for her outspokenness, Collins has no taboos, as she showed at a press conference by quietly answering questions related to the endometriosis from which she suffered for several minutes.
19
like the number of points conceded in a row in the round of 16 against Simona Halep
After the Spaniard Muguruza in the 3rd round (victory 6-3, 6-3), Cornet found himself for the second time against an ex-world number 1 in the round of 16. The French made a dream start to the match. Dominating, more aggressive, more lucid, more constant in the exchange, the 61st world puts the double winner in Grand Slam to the torture. After 1:15, she leads 6-4 and offers a 4-1 ball. And then the black hole. 19 points conceded without scoring a single one, 6 games to 0 for the Romanian. Opposite, it is no longer Halep but the ghost of Dinara Safina.
But Cornet goes back to battle. Offers two match points in the third set. lose them. The story goes into reverse, Cornet finds herself in Melbourne in 2009… Under an infernal dodger, she finally wins 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 and has to submit to the ritual interview on the court. At the other end of the microphone, ex-player Jelena Dokic. The very one she should have met in the quarter-finals in Melbourne in 2009 if she had converted one of her two match points. “I wanted to play against you so badly thirteen years ago”, said Cornet with tears in his eyes.
11th
his best ranking, in 2009
Alizé Cornet, born in January 1990 in Nice, was then a young player full of promise. The previous year, she won her first tournament, in Budapest, and reached the final in Rome (a tournament in the category just below the Grand Slams). She knocks on the door of the Top 10. She will never integrate.
Since then, Alizé Cornet’s career has followed a roller coaster with more downhills than uphills. On her CV, she can pin 6 tournaments (the last in 2018) and a few short-lived stunts. Prestige victories and illogical defeats. More dark years than good seasons. His last foray into the Top 20 dates back to January 2015.
This year, she attacked the Australian Open as the 61st in the world. No one expected him in the quarter-finals. Nobody except her and her former coach, Georges Goven, interviewed by the team: “Behind this somewhat crazy side on the pitch, she is a girl who has exceptional mental qualities. This madness is part of the character but it does not cause too much damage to her. […] But there are two essential elements to the performance: that it is physically good and that its service is well set. When it gets tense, this blow can become problematic. […] She knows how to do a lot of things. She can accelerate her backhand, long line or cross. She has her forehand domed. She can do a little chop, she knows how to play amortized, especially on the forehand… She still has a variety of play that disturbs the other players. She’s not a girl who plays at the same pace all the time and gives you the same type of ball all the time. Tactically, it very rarely goes through.