Alizé Cornet

Alizé Cornet (; born 22 January 1990) is a French professional tennis player. Cornet has won six singles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as three singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 16 February 2009, she reached her highest WTA singles ranking of world No. 11. Cornet has also made the second week at each of the four Grand Slam events, having reached the quarterfinals at the 2022 Australian Open, and the fourth round at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships, the 2015 and 2017 French Opens, and the 2020 US Open. She holds the record for the most consecutive Grand Slam appearances with 63 and also in seventh place for overall appearances with 66.

In 2014, Cornet became known for defeating world No. 1, Serena Williams, on three occasions. At the Dubai Championships, she recorded a straight-sets win over Williams in the semifinals, which resulted in Cornet's reaching her biggest singles final in almost six years. In July, at the Wimbledon Championships, she came back from a set down to upset Williams in the third round, handing the American her earliest exit at the tournament since 2005. Her third win came in second round of Wuhan later that year where Williams retired due to illness.

Cornet also has an impressive junior record, reaching a career-high combined junior ranking of world No. 8, on 11 June 2007. She won her sole Grand Slam junior singles title at the 2007 French Open.

Career

2005–2007

Cornet made her Grand Slam singles debut at the age of 15 in the 2005 French Open after receiving a singles main-draw wildcard. Coming into that tournament ranked only 645th in the world, she upset 71st-ranked Alina Jidkova in the first round before losing to No. 3 seed Amélie Mauresmo in the second round. At the 2006 French Open, she beat Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain in the first round before losing to Tathiana Garbin in the second round. She could not repeat this performance at the 2007 French Open, where she lost in the first round to No. 26 seed Venus Williams. Cornet made her Wimbledon singles debut in 2007. At that tournament, she was defeated in the final qualifying round by Olga Govortsova, but made it to the main draw as a lucky loser when Li Na withdrew. Cornet defeated Maria Kirilenko the first round of the main draw before losing to the experienced No. 26 seed Ai Sugiyama in the second round in three sets. In 2007, Cornet won the $50k singles title in Dnipropetrovsk, beating Stefanie Vögele in the final. Cornet made her US Open singles debut in 2007. At that tournament, she defeated after three qualifying matches in the main draw No. 29 seed Samantha Stosur and unseeded Caroline Wozniacki in the first and second rounds, respectively, before losing to No. 3 seed, Jelena Janković.

2008: First Premier-5 final, first WTA Tour titles

Cornet reached the second round of the Australian Open where she lost to ninth seed Daniela Hantuchová. Over the following months, Cornet experienced a great level of success on the main tour, particularly on clay, reaching the final in Acapulco and the semifinals in Amelia Island and Charleston (a Tier-I event). Cornet entered the Rome Masters and beat Vera Dushevina in the first round, Francesca Schiavone in the second, world No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova in the third, and then received a walkover from an injured Serena Williams to get into the semifinals. She defeated Anna Chakvetadze to reach her first Tier-I final where, however, she lost to Janković in two sets.

Due to her great run at Rome, she rose to No. 20 in the world and was seeded 19th for her home Grand Slam, the French Open. She defeated Julia Vakulenko in the first round after a stylish display. She then beat clay specialist Gisela Dulko in the second round but lost to 14th seed Agnieszka Radwańska in the third round.

She suffered a poor grass-court season, making first round exits at Eastbourne (to Amélie Mauresmo) and at Wimbledon, to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

She won her first WTA title at Budapest. Cornet was seeded second and received a bye into the second round. Here she defeated Magdaléna Rybáriková, and followed it up with a straight-sets win over Anna-Lena Grönefeld in the quarterfinals. In the semifinal she defeated Gréta Arn, to make her third final of the year, which she won in two sets against Andreja Klepač. She capped it off by winning the doubles with Janette Husárová at the same tournament.

At Austria, she was seeded second. However, whilst 6–2, 2–1 up, she suffered an injury and retired when trailing 3–2 in the final set.

Cornet then competed at the Beijing Olympics. She was seeded 15th for the singles event, and defeated Nicole Vaidišová in the first round, Peng Shuai in the second, before falling to No. 4 seed Serena Williams in three sets. She also competed in the women's doubles with Virginie Razzano, where they lost in the first round. In New Haven, she was seeded seventh and again beat Vaidišová in the first round. Cornet followed it up by beating Katarina Srebotnik, and a win over second seeded Daniela Hantuchová in the quarterfinal. However, she lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Caroline Wozniacki.

At the US Open, she was seeded 17th in the singles event, where she reached the third round with wins over Camille Pin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the first and second rounds respectively before losing to 4–6, 5–7 to Anna-Lena Grönefeld in the third.

2009: Singles career-high

Cornet played at the Hopman Cup, and placed third in her group, partnering Gilles Simon. She defeated Hsieh Su-wei of Chinese Taipei and Italian Flavia Pennetta. She then lost to Russia's Dinara Safina, 3–6, 2–6.

Cornet began the season at the Sydney International where she defeated seventh seed Nadia Petrova and Alisa Kleybanova before losing to second seed and eventual finalist Dinara Safina in the quarterfinals. Cornet entered the Australian Open as the 15th seed, easily winning her two matches. In the third round, she dropped a set against Daniela Hantuchová, but advanced regardless. In the fourth round, she held two match points against Safina, but was eventually ousted in three sets. This was her third loss to the Russian already that year.

Cornet then took part in the Open GdF Suez in Paris. Seeded fifth, she defeated Latvian qualifier Anastasija Sevastova in the first round and went on to again defeat Hantuchová in three tight sets in the second round. She was then defeated by the No. 2 seed Jelena Janković in the quarterfinal.

Despite having an impressive first month of the year, Cornet's results began to slide. She lost her two matches to Francesca Schiavone and Flavia Pennetta in the Fed Cup, playing for France. Her best result in her next seven tournaments were third round showings in Dubai and Miami. She would lose another two matches in the Fed Cup Play-offs, to Daniela Hantuchová and Dominika Cibulková.

Cornet fell in the early rounds in both the French Open and Wimbledon, continuing a dismal 2009 tennis season.

She was then defeated in the early rounds in Budapest and Palermo. After months of early losses, Cornet had a promising showing in Bad Gastein, advancing to the semifinals before losing to Ioana Raluca Olaru, a match in which Cornet had a 5–4 lead and serve for closing the match in the second set.

2010: Second doubles title, loss of form

Cornet began the season at the Auckland Open in New Zealand, losing to Francesca Schiavone in the quarterfinals. She then suffered an early loss to Alona Bondarenko in Hobart. At the Australian Open in the opening round, she again lost to Schiavone. Over the next two months, poor results continued for the Frenchwoman. During this period, her most notable tournament was in Monterrey, Mexico, where she reached the quarterfinals.

During the European clay-court season, Cornet, as a qualifier in the Barcelona Open