Alizé Cornet beaten by Ajla Tomljanovic in the round of 16 at Wimbledon – L’Équipe

As usual, she tried to the end, releasing her last strength in this fight of 2:35 against Ajla Tomljanovic. But Alizé Cornet, overtaken by her adductor pain, had reached her physical limits in the third set of this duel and despite her desire to win, she ended up losing (4-6, 6-4, 6-3) . It was a few moments after the release of Harmony Tan and there are therefore no more French women (there were three in the round of 16) in this Wimbledon 2022. The sequence of matches (she was playing her 17th in 20 days between the singles , doubles and mixed) may have ended up weighing for the Niçoise who ended the meeting with visible pain in her thighs, where she wears bandages due to chronic worries. Several times it struggled to recover from some contested rallies. But she hung on to the end, erasing in particular one of the two breaks behind her in this decisive round, in vain. A first half in Grand Slam for Tomljanovic? The moment when Cornet probably missed the opportunity to play his second Grand Slam quarter-final, after that of the Australian Open 2022, dates back to a few minutes earlier. At 4-4, 40-15 at the end of the second set, the French missed the boat by not keeping her serve. Tomljanovic dropped his arm on the forehand and Cornet then gave up his serve on an unforced error. Behind, she let the Australian return to a set everywhere while she had managed to stay in contact throughout this second set. Two days after her feat against Iga Swiatek, she had crunched in this match with the same desire and the same commitment as against the world No. 1. But unlike her duel with the Polish, she let herself be a little more overwhelmed by her frustration on certain errors such as when, in the heart of the first set, she got annoyed in the direction of her clan. This nervousness did not prevent him from concluding this first act, on a break. The follow-up, just as committed, was more disjointed between two players who refused to let go and sent themselves on the court like this rally of 21 shots won by the Australian after a last woody strike from the Frenchwoman. Little by little, Tomljanovic managed to put his mark on this meeting until the final victory. The Australian will face Elena Rybakina for a place in the semi-finals of this Wimbledon. It would be his first Grand Slam.