Cornet breaks Swiatek’s winning streak
It was the biggest sensation of the day in the women's draw. The Frenchwoman Alizé Cornet beat the unbeatable world No. 1 of this year in only two sets: 6-4, 6-2. By the way, the world number 37 broke the 37-match winning streak of Poland's Iga Swiatek. A huge achievement that allows her to join Ajla Tomljanovic in the 1/8 finals.
High-profile victory
Beating the world No. 1, who hadn’t lost since February, in two sets, 1 hour and 34 minutes, was the feat achieved by the Frenchwoman Alizé Cornet in the third round of the competition. The first set was a hard-fought one, during which the Frenchwoman took Iga’s serve twice in a row at the beginning of the game, without managing to confirm the second. Cornet’s defence and counter-attacking game is well practised, with some exceptional points in key moments. She kept her stake until the end of the set to win it in 52 minutes, to the surprise of everyone.
At the beginning of the second set, Swiatek immediately took Cornet’s serve after having won hers. We could have thought that the Polish No. 1 would start to dominate this set but nothing happened. The Frenchwoman continued to build on her good momentum from the first set, broke Iga’s serve in the aftermath, and continued to put up big defences and passing-shots to melt the world number one and take her serve twice more. Swiatek made far too many unforced errors compared to her opponent (33 against 7 in total) to hope to rack up a 38th consecutive win. Three match points but only one was enough for Cornet to close out the second set 6-2 and achieve the feat.
8 years later, on the same court
This victory against Iga Swiatek will clearly be one of the greatest achievements of Alizé Cornet’s career. It allows the 32-year-old from Nice to reach the last 16 of the London Grand Slam for the second time in her career. And the first time was on this same court n°1, in 2014 and not just against anyone as it was the American Serena Williams. A prestigious victory to create a huge sensation against the one who was terrorising the women’s tour. Eight years later, a similar feat has allowed her to reach the last sixteen where she will face the Australian Tomljanovic, who defeated Barbora Krejcikova. Alizé Cornet will have the opportunity to match her best Grand Slam performance, a quarter-final she reached last January at the Australian Open.
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