Alizé Cornet, 56e world player, qualified on Saturday 5 September for the 8es of the US Open, which she reached for the first time, benefiting from the abandonment of her opponent Madison Keys (14e). The American, who had been manipulated on the court several times, gave up on injury while the French led 7-6 (7/4), 3-2.
“I noticed at the beginning of the 2e set that she started to have pain and she’s not the type to give up, so I’m sorry for her ”, Cornet commented. “I could see she couldn’t serve normally, but for the rest she played as usual. So I said to myself: “Above all, don’t let yourself be distracted” ”, added the Frenchwoman. “The most important thing is that I held my serve well and that I was solid. I’m sad about what happened, but I’m happy to be for the first time in 8es “, she concluded.
From now on, Alizé Cornet will have reached the 8es final of the four Grand Slam tournaments. But she has never made it to quarterfinals yet in any.
In the next round, the Niçoise will face the Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova, who will turn 33 on September 13, the day of the men’s final, and who had put her tennis career on hold since 2017.
She is the only one of the two French people to survive the 6e day, his compatriot Corentin Moutet was swept by the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-1, 6-0, 6-4. The 77e world was overwhelmed on all sides by the 21e who set the pace for the first two innings with a plethora of powerful punches. After a passage in the locker room, the Frenchman managed to give his opponent a little more trouble, but he did not last more than 1 h 56 min.
