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DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPSFebruary 18, 2014Alize CornetDUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES A. CORNET/S. Halep THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Well done. While the tennis lasted, it was very good. Do you feel you were playing well and probably would have won anyway? ALIZE CORNET: I don't know. You never know, but yeah, I think I was playing very good. I didn't give her any chance to get into the match, and I think she felt that I would play really consistent like that till the end, so I think it was tough for her physically after a big, big week in Doha. Yeah, I'm happy. You know, it's my first top‑10 player for, I don't know, ever, like six years, and it's weird to win like this on a retirement, but I'm still happy the way I played, and I hope I will keep going like that. Q. Are you at your best level again now, do you think? ALIZE CORNET: Yeah, I think now since one year I am playing quite good again, yes. I was playing great when I was 18, 19 years old, but I was a newcomer, nobody knew me, and it was a little bit surprise effect. Now I'm like more mature, and I have more experience, so my tennis is different. I think it's even better than before, but now I'm more playing with my experience and it's completely different career for me. I'm just happy to be back at this level, because it was tough when I dropped in the ranking. I can enjoy myself on the court like here in Dubai so it's great. Q. Do you have a greater tactical range of what you can do now? ALIZE CORNET: What do you mean, against Halep? Q. Against anybody. ALIZE CORNET: Well, there are things I'm working on every day. I worked a lot on my forehand these last couple of years to make it improve, and I think it works because I'm hitting the ball quite well in forehand. And then, you know, it's ‑‑anyway, we have to work every day to improve. And I'm 25 in the world right now, so I have ‑‑I want to be better, and so I have a lot of things to work still. I try to have always the same schema of game, you know, like playing a lot with my forehand, trying to do topspin, playing flat in backhand. So, yeah, these kind of tactic is working quite well when I do it good. So I will stay on this way. Q. How tough was it to deal with the low point of your career? First year or so no one knew you. Top 10 then? ALIZE CORNET: 11. Best ranking, 11. Q. Then it fell away quite dramatically for a while. How tough was that to deal with? ALIZE CORNET: Yeah, first of all, it was a great beginning of career, 18 and already top 20 players. It's something you don't see anymore right now, because the players are arriving later, like more 19 or 20 years old. So it was great because I was just all fresh and full of will and of motivation. And then you said I dropped dramatically. It's true and not true in the same time, because compared to what I did at the beginning, it was dramatic. But I see the girls of 20 years old in my country, they are 20, 21, they are like 70, 80, the ranking, and that was a ranking I had when I dropped. So everything is relative. It was dramatic for me but it's not a drama in itself, like Caroline and Kristina for sure will get better. So it's relative to me and what I did at the beginning. So I have to take it easy about it and now just stay focused on the second part of my career, which is pretty good, as well. Q. Did you doubt if you could get back to the top? ALIZE CORNET: Doubt? Yes, all the time. I doubt a lot of times, but I still kept working, because I knew I could do it. I did it once. I thought it was not randomly, like I had the tennis in my racquet but I couldn't find it anymore. Physically I was not so good anymore, either. So I just kept working, and I changed the person I was working with, and now I have two new coaches and I think they brought me back to the right way. Everything finally got back together, but it was not easy at all. Q. Do you think, looking at it in hindsight, it's easier to have a more gradual... ALIZE CORNET: Than too fast? Q. Than go too fast, because it also comes with a lot of responsibility. People want to talk to you, they want you to do this and that. ALIZE CORNET: I don't know. Because what I did when I was young, nobody can take it away from me, you know. I did it, it was unbelievable, and this is something in me. So it's tough to regret that, because of course I went too fast, maybe too fast, but still I did it, so it's part of my career, of my history. Now I'm only 24, so I think the best years are coming now, and I can enjoy it maybe better now than when I was a teenager. Q. The tour is kind of skewed, you know, to older. Obviously, Serena is almost 32, that kind of stuff. So you're basically very young still. ALIZE CORNET: I'm still young. Before I was a baby. Now I'm still young. You know, time goes fast, and I want to enjoy every tournament I'm playing, even though it's not easy all the time. But we have a great life, and that's why I'm happy that I could come back like since two years, because now I have a lot of years coming and coming up, and hopefully, you know, I will stay at this level. But now I found the key, you know, to stay at this level, and I hope I will enjoy it a lot. Q. Obviously you have won in circumstances in which you wouldn't normally, like in terms of an opponent retiring. But is it good that you can conserve your energy for the later rounds, that you're not exerting too much energy in these circumstances? ALIZE CORNET: Yeah. I mean, if Simona would have been in perfect shape, it would have been a huge battle, for sure, because she's very physical, as well, and me too. It would have lasted for a while. I'm happy to be through, first, and then to have energy for the next round. The field is so strong here, so every match is unbelievable, tough, and I will take a look at my next opponent, and now that I have energy saved, I will be able to make a tactic and hopefully go to the quarters. Q. It is Flipkens or Pliskova. Do you have any knowledge, or what are your experiences of either of player you might be facing? ALIZE CORNET: They are completely opposite. You take Kirsten and Pliskova are completely opposite in the game. I'm playing with Kirsten Flipkens two matches in France. We are good friends. I played against Pliskova last year in Guangzhou. I think I won 7‑6, two sets, I can't remember, and we all know each other anyway, so I know what to expect. But I feel that Pliskova is in a good ‑‑I don't know. She has a good career right now. She played quite well in Doha. Now she qualified in Dubai. Her game suits pretty much to this surface. She can be dangerous. Q. Did you know Simona was injured when you started the match? ALIZE CORNET: No. Was she? I don't know if she like got worse during the match or if she was injured before. See, she had it last week and what she did (smiling)? No, I think the fatigue from last week is normal, and she didn't have time I think to get used to the surface. I had four days before to play and practice on this surface. So, you know, Simona, she's a fighter, so even though ‑‑even when she's injured, you have to be careful, because she can be always dangerous and win some matches, even tired or injured. Q. But you could notice it as the match went on? ALIZE CORNET: No, actually not. I saw that she was not running 100%, but she was still playing like normal. She was still fighting, screaming on the shots, going for the shots. I didn't mention it so easily, but I saw that I had to make her run, because she had trouble to run. That's it. Q. Can you look ahead a little bit to the Fed Cup playoff? France and US, we think of them as two powerhouse nations, and yet they are going to have to play for their spot in the World Group. ALIZE CORNET: Well, you know, it's not an easy draw for us. USA is a big country of tennis. They have so many players right now between Serena and top 100. You have so many players to put on the court, so it's going to be tough for us. We have only four players in top 100. We are still, like we are still playing good. I think it's going to be a tight match and tight tie. Tight tie (smiling). We give our best. It's not easy to play there. It's not easy with the season because it's after the American tournaments, Indian Wells, Miami. Then we don't know if we should stay, go back to France. It's a bit difficult to organize all that, but for sure we will give our best, and we want so much to get back to the World Group.  If we have to beat the United States, we will go for it. Q. Do you think you'll play? ALIZE CORNET: Well, I'm French No. 1, so if I will be in the team, I will of course answer yes, because I'm always playing Fed Cup. It's like a no‑no for us in France to not play. We never refuse a selection. I will be on the team. I don't know if I will play, but as No. 1 in France, I believe Amélie will choose me to at least be on the team. We don't refuse that in France. It's not allowed (smiling). Q. Going back to your climb up the rankings, would you have any advice for Genie Bouchard, who is obviously a similar age and top 20. Is it to enjoy the ride or take it step by step, or, you know, what would you say to someone like her? ALIZE CORNET: Yeah, I think from my experience, I didn't enjoy it enough, I think.  Everything was normal. Like I got very high when I was 19, top 20, I was winning a lot of matches, a lot of money. Everything was great, but everything was normal, normal evolution. And I think this is not the way I should have taken it, because what happened was unbelievable, was extraordinary, and that's how I see the things now. Now that I've got back, I enjoy it way more. Genie is a great player. She's way more professional than I was when I was 19. I was crazy and all that stuff, so she just has to enjoy it and keep working all the time, because nothing is for sure. You know what I mean? If you stop working, you can drop easily as I did. That's it. Just keep the way she's doing. That's all. Q. What would you tell Sloane Stephens? Because she was in your position last year... ALIZE CORNET: I think I'm talking like an old woman who gives advice to everyone. (Laughter.) Q.But she jumped out and now she's struggling, losing first rounds and everything. ALIZE CORNET: I see that, yes. Q. What would you tell her about this portion of the time, the struggle portion? ALIZE CORNET: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sometimes she reminds me of myself, Sloane, a bit more. Because on the court sometimes she's a bit down, you know, and I feel she's not confident. But, come on, wow, she's like 20, as well, top 20, just keep working and take the thing easy, because all these young players, they are gonna be anyway the future of the tennis, so they are going to be very, very strong. So, you know, everything happens in time, if I can say, and just have to keep working and keep believing in ourselves. That's it. But I'm not worried at all for this kind of players, because they are very good and they are definitely the future of WTA. Q. Do you think it's almost good like Genie, like she had to do qualifying, didn't come through, like those moments, so that she's not maybe... ALIZE CORNET: You know, everybody has his own way. That's what I think. There is no ideal situation. Like you arrive on the tour, and there is no‑‑ how can I say? There is no ideal situation. You're doing your own way, each of us, and you have to try to keep focused on your game, on your tennis, and that's the key, you know. It's not better to do step by step or to go too fast or whatever. I mean, the main thing is that when you arrive and when you have the chance to be in the top 20, just don't let it go. Just keep working, and every day, because when you're young, when you're young and you're famous, you want to go around and celebrate outside the tennis. You have to know what you want. That's it. Q. Did you stop working? ALIZE CORNET: I didn't stop working, but I worked differently, like with less flame. Q. Less intensity? ALIZE CORNET: Less intensity. I was still working, because I'm a fighter, I'm a worker, I'm doing that every day, but it was different. It was not like ‑‑I didn't have the flame anymore. That's it. It goes away for a little while, and now I found it back. So I don't want to let it go out anymore. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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