French Open Interview with Alize Cornet May 27th

French Open Interview with Alize Cornet May 27th

A. CORNET/M. Ani 6‑4, 7‑5

Q. We felt you were nervous over the last two days. How do you feel after this first round?

ALIZE CORNET: Well, I’m fine. Yesterday I was a bit upset, because I couldn’t finish my match. This morning I was very calm on the court, and that was a positive. I managed to control my stress. In the morning when I woke up, I knew I had to get on the court at 4‑All. But it went fine, so it was a big relief at the end.

Q. And after this difficult beginning of season on clay, what do you think about your game right now?

ALIZE CORNET: Well, I played better when I practiced than during the matches, but that’s not difficult. I really play well when I practice. I have good feelings with the ball and everything, and when I start playing a match, everything goes down one level. I don’t know why.

I know that there is a stress playing here. There is also what’s at stake. So it’s a bit of a shame. I’m not totally happy. My biggest satisfaction today was that I managed to control myself. I managed not to show my emotions during the match. But in terms of game level, I have to play a bit better to win tomorrow.

Q. You sort of specialize in interrupted matches here. How did you experience this one?

ALIZE CORNET: Well, better, because last time it was one set all, and there was no advantage, and it’s a match I should have won in two sets, and I was fighting a third set.

And last year was even worse, 3‑All third set. That was the worst match of my life, and I showed it the following morning. I was nervous on the court, and I felt every point was so important, as if it was the last one. That was different.

I was one set up. I had saved points at 5‑3 and we were at 4‑All,and I thought it was better to go to bed at 4‑All than at 5‑3. And then we talked between yesterday and today, and probably grew up, and this is also why I better managed that.

Q. And you slept okay?

ALIZE CORNET: Oh, yes, of course. I mean, I was so tired. It took so much of my energy, and stopping the match and thinking about it, so I went to bed and I slept like a log. I was very relaxed.

Q. What did Pierre tell you?

ALIZE CORNET: Well, Pierre talked and talked and talked to me. He drowned me in words. He talked to me,told me to visualize the moment I would walk on the court again. The moment I would start serving at 4‑All. The moment when I would have good first serves as opposed to yesterday.

He’s very much into seeing things, visualizing things, whereas I like to hide my head in the sand a bit like an ostrich.

But then if I manage to think about it. Once I’m on the court, I know exactly what I have to do. And today it worked out, soI try his system again, and if it works, fine.

Q. The beginning of a Grand Slam is never easy. You had more practice and more results last year as opposed to this year, so is there something that made you nervous yesterday, or did it add to your being nervous yesterday?

ALIZE CORNET: That’s true that I’ve not had many results so far, but mostly because of my game. So,I mean, it doesn’t add to my being nervous, but when I arrived, like, last year,I’m overconfident, I think I can defeat anyone, and I feared no one.

But this year, I know that I went through a bad period with bad matches, and it’s totally different. I know I will be not as solid as last year at important moments. It adds to ‑‑ well, my fears with regards to certain matches, but it’s probably my first step to reconstruct myself.

Q. What about your next match?

ALIZE CORNET: Well, I play Cirstea, and we played in juniors together. She was born in ‘90 like me, and I played her on clay, and I won last year.

You have to be careful with this girl. Sometimes she hits very hard on the ball, so hard you think she’s just doing anything to hit the ball hard, but I know she can be pretty accurate, as well, so I’ll need to be very creative and try and make her move and run around, because otherwise I’ll have no fun in that match.

But I’ll see that later. It’s point after point, match after match.

Q. Did you have pleasure playing on the central court with all these people who supported you over these two days?

ALIZE CORNET: I’m not going to lie to you. I’m not going to tell you, wow, that was great, I made the most of each moment.

To be honest, I played the first part of my match in the night, so it was a bit difficult. Then this morning I walked. I was very much under pressure. I didn’t want to play three sets, so yes,there was pleasure. People.

Are supporting me playing on the big court,and I practiced all year‑round to experience that feeling. But I didn’t experience the extreme feeling ‑‑ the feeling of extreme joy you have, I had, sometimes last year.

Q. Did you or your coach ask the question as to why you always play at the end of the day with the risk of not being able to finish a match? Did you talk about it with the organizers?

ALIZE CORNET: No, I didn’t ‑‑ I know my mother did yesterday. She did the job for me. I have no explanation. I know that they have to have two men’s and two women’s matches on the Chatrier.

Perhaps they want to give more visibility to men, so they start with the women when there is not many people yet, and they have the second women’s match at the end of the day.

I understand, because we had very high‑level men’s matches yesterday.

Q. And tomorrow, you’re playing midday?

ALIZE CORNET: Well, that’s perfect, and I hope it’s going to be more sunny.

Q. When you see all the other French players being eliminated one after the other, does it add to your pressure?

ALIZE CORNET: No, I’m sorry for them, because all the French players, women’s French players, they’re my friends. I know them very well, and when I see all of them, all of those who lost, the result was pretty tight, pretty close. So that’s a shame, but it doesn’t change anything for me. It doesn’t add to the pressure I have.

Maybe there won’t be many French girls, but maybe we’ll go far in that tournament. I saw that Aravane qualified for the third round. I’ll try and do the same tomorrow.

Q. You had a difficult time when you played in the Fed Cup, just like many other French girls. Is it a problem for you to play on the French team?

ALIZE CORNET: Well, it is a problem when you lose your match. It is a problem for your confidence. But when you bring one point to your team, and especially for someone like me, I think team effort is so important, and being the one that loses a match, well, yes. That was pretty bad for my confidence, but I don’t think it had an influence on my game.

And it wouldn’t be honest for me to say that this is the only one reason for which I don’t play that well lately. I didn’t play well in Rome, but I did play well in Dubai, so I think it has more to do with the problems I have in my shoulder and with my health, and nothing to do with the Fed Cup.

With all the emotions we experienced when we played Slovakia,that’s correct.

Q. What about your shoulder? How do you feel?

ALIZE CORNET: So far, so good. Touch wood. My shoulder is much better. No other problems. But on clay, you sometimes have difficult moves, and the clay is very dry. So you slide a lot on the court. But apart from this, I feel good.

So if I lose, it’s not going to be because of my physical condition, it’s going to be because of my mindset.

Q. In Madrid, you were pretty unhappy about your defeat, and you took a one‑week break. Was it good for you, mentally?

ALIZE CORNET: Yes, I took this one‑week break, not because I didn’t want to think about tennis. I thought about tennis all the time, but I wanted to think about my motivations. I mean, those very simple questions that you don’t have time to ask yourself when you play every day and when you practice and play.

So I really wanted to take a week off to ask myself the appropriate questions and ask myself why I want to do that, why I want to play tennis, why I love that so much, why I don’t seem to love it so much anymore. And in one week, well, I realized that tennis is in my bloodstream, it’s in my system, and this is what I want to do, and this is what I love doing.
I think if I had not taken that break, I would not have realized it. So, of course, now I arrive here, and arriving here, I’m much more clear about what I want to do than when I went to Rome or Madrid. In Rome and Madrid, I played because I had to. Here, I play because I want to.

interview from RG
Photo Getty Images