ROLAND GARROS

May 28, 2022

Alize Cornet

Press Conference

Q. ZHENG/A. Cornet

6-0, 3-0 (ret.)

THE MODERATOR: A quick word, Alize, after this walkover, it's first time, was it too hard? We know that you didn't play the doubles yesterday, you were in pain, it didn't seem to be present when you were warming up, but it seemed to come back again.

ALIZE CORNET: Well, I couldn't move around on the court and I knew it before I came on to the court, but I decided to try because that's how I am.

I always try my luck right to the end, but maybe I shouldn't have played and not taken the risk of making things worse.

So I do have a tear in the abductor muscle, so it was a risky bet, but I wanted to give it a try.

But she really didn't allow me to breathe even, so it was largely due to her that I was, that I lost 0-6, 0-3 and not just because of the injury. It's just that at one point when you're in pain there's no point in carrying on.

Q. Can you tell us when you became injured? Was it against, was it in the match with Jelena Ostapenko earlier? How did it happen?

ALIZE CORNET: At 4-2 in the third set I stayed for a few moments with my head down and I really felt it when I was sliding to the right.

And on the spot it held until the two final games, luckily, but the next day I woke up and I felt that something was wrong.

So we did a sonogram yesterday evening and it showed that there was no doubt on the diagnosis. And it was my decision whether I played today or not, but you know me, I would never have done a walkover or abandoned a game in a Grand Slam. So it wasn't possible for me to not try to give it my all today.

Q. When you brought the physio along you didn't seem to be very happy, what were you asking them?

ALIZE CORNET: I was asking her to tighten my strap to contain the pain and she wanted to wait for the next change of sides.

I didn't know that I wasn't allowed to do it at 1-0, but she insisted that it could only be done at the next change. In any case, it hurt so much that it wouldn't really have changed anything, but I was trying desperately to find solutions until it just made no more sense, as I said.

Q. Will you be back here next year?

ALIZE CORNET: I don't know. Just on the spot it's very difficult to say. What is amazing that people dared to boo me on the court when I had to abandon the match. And it was because I was in pain. But sometimes the French audience surprises me and not always in the right direction.

Q. It's a very big contrast between the atmosphere of the previous match and today's match. So you said something about it now, but did you think it hurt you? How did it feel leaving the court having abandoned the match and being booed?

ALIZE CORNET: Yes, it hurt more than my injury itself. But, yes, you know, you can't generalize things. It was just a handful of people in the stadium so maybe they made a lot of noise. But it's really too much when you see everything I've been giving on the court for so many years. I think it would have been far easier for me not to come on to the court, not to put myself, make myself vulnerable with this injury.

So, yeah, no, it's a real pain because it's unfair and when things are unfair it hurts. But once again most of the people are no doubt sad for me and understand what's happening, but this handful of idiots really, really, really makes you feel bad.

Q. If you could say what the problem was that you were having.

ALIZE CORNET: I got injured during my match against Jelena Ostapenko two days ago. And yesterday we did a sonogram that showed a tear, a major tear, a pretty good one, so I knew it would be hard for me to play today.

But I decided to go on court anyway and try, especially with the schedule that put me on center court, I really wanted to try my best for the crowd and for the tournament. But it was definitely not enough today. I mean this girl, she's playing amazing tennis and if I wanted to beat her I had to be a hundred percent, which was definitely not the case today.

Q. Did you consider not playing today?

ALIZE CORNET: Yeah, of course. This morning I thought about it for after my warmup. I saw that even with the tape I had pain and I knew it would be hard, but I guess it's not in my nature to give up so easily, so I just wanted to go. But now thinking back on this decision maybe I was wrong, I don't know.

Q. Do you have an idea of how long you'll need to rest?

ALIZE CORNET: Well, I'll have to do some more medical exams to find out a bit more, but it's a good thing that I didn't make things too much worse today because that might have been quite serious. But I think it will take at least two or three weeks.