Alizé Cornet announces her retirement

She first spoke about the end of this life as a tennis player in February 2021, after a defeat in the second round of the Australian Open. “Right off the bat I want to say this is my last year. » And went on: “I’m not leaving until Paris 2024.” It’s been a while, but she doesn’t actually get very far. Alizé Cornet announced on Saturday on Canal+ that she would put down her rackets after her twentieth Roland-Garros (May 26 – June 9), where she will receive an invitation. “It is the result of a long journey that lasted more than two years, she told, moving. I feel like it’s time. I went all the way. » Rafael Nadal paid tribute to him and his tribute “amazing career”.

Cornet will say goodbye to Paris, where it all began in 2005. A duel at the Suzanne-Lenglen court against one of his idols, Amélie Mauresmo, whose poster adorned the head of his bed. She was 15 years old and had fulfilled her childhood dream.

The world number 3 had brought her back to the revisions for the French baccalaureate, but had whetted her appetite: “I had a very strong rage to win, an inner fire that contaminated all the people around me. »

The time for confirmation came in 2008, in Rome. A final, lost to Jelena Jankovic, entry into the top 20. But the top 10 was denied her the following year, when she failed to convert one of her two match points against Dinara Safina in the round of 16 of the Australian Open. Cornet believed for a long time that she would not reach the quarter-finals of the Grand Slam either. So when she got there in 2022, she couldn’t hold back the tears as she knelt on the warm ground in Melbourne. His persistence was rewarded. “She never gave up a point! When she was at the end of her rope, she managed to find the resources to go back into battle, greets Patrick Mouratoglou, who knows her very well since she has trained at his academy in Biot (Alpes-Maritimes) for almost ten years. She is the prototype of the fighter and the hard worker. »

Off the field, Niçoise has breathed a breath of fresh air from the start of his career. “She’s super honest, very natural, not tongue-in-cheek. I’ve always found that in a very sanitized world, where there’s mistrust and jealousy, she was a good customer who said what she meant with great kindness. The system hasn’t changed it.” praises Mouratoglou.

His career has been full of highs: an 11th place in the world in 2009, Fed Cup 2019 won with the French team in Australia, six titles, twenty-five wins against the top 10, including four against a world number 1. Her biggest success was against Serena Williams in the third round of Wimbledon 2014, a few days after her grandmother’s death. And its lifetime will be a landmark. She was in the top 100 from April 2012 to October 2013 and played in 68 consecutive Grand Slam tournaments, a record for men and women combined.

Cornet has also experienced disillusionment, falls or painful defeats, especially in the Fed Cup. “It is a sport that drives you crazy, that lives in us, that obsesses us. I had great joys and great disappointments, moments of depression, it was a roller coaster for twenty years. »

This will end soon. The future is this life as a writer – her third novel comes out on Thursday – and undoubtedly as a TV consultant. Before that, there will be a farewell at Roland-Garros, in front of those closest to him, his former coaches. The opportunity to fight one or more battles as she loves them so much