Alize Cornet beats Serena Williams for the second consecutive time, but this was the most important one. The Frenchwoman had a surprising 6-4 6-4 win against the world no.1 in Dubai this year. Alize didn’t really expect to make it again this time also because she has been battling a lot with grass courts for the last few years, but this time it was different.
Serena had a head start to win the opener 6-1. Many (also Alize) were expecting a smooth sailing for the American that instead had to face a fierce come back from the world no.24 that won the second set 6-3. In the third set Cornet was leading 5-2, but the world on.1 hang tough to bring set to a 5-4 score line. Alize didn’t melt down to hold a decisive service game at 0 to upset once again Serena. The final score was 1-6 6-3 6-4.
Some numbers
The match was absolutely even with both players scoring 90 points. Serena’s service didn’t work as usual to commit 7 double faults (only 3 aces) and she committed 29 unforced errors (far too many). Both players had a terrible percentage of second serve point won (30%). Match Stats.
Cornet: It feels great
Alize was just jubilant to comment “I’m just calming down now because I was very excited for an hour. I couldn’t believe it. I still cannot believe it, actually. If somebody would have told me a couple years ago that I would be in the second week here at Wimbledon, and beating Serena, I wouldn’t have believed it.
“It feels great. Of course, what a victory. It’s the best way to get to the second week.”
Serena: She really played well
The American was in a completely different mood to “She kept her unforced errors really low. I don’t know. I think I made a few errors too many. You know, she was going for her shots. She just played really well today.
“I thought I was playing well. I worked really hard coming into this event. It’s okay, though. Sometimes it happens. You work hard, but maybe it’s not for today, maybe it’s for tomorrow. But, yeah, so I’ve just got to keep going.”
Next vs. Bouchard
Alize will play Genie Bouchard in the next round. Head to head is 1-0 for Cornet, but Bouchard is the favorite to get to the quarters.