Alizé Cornet defends title in Katowice

Posted by TennisPhotoWorld on 06 Apr 2015

As you probably already find out tennisphotoworld.com has arrived in Katowice, Poland. Last year this tournament was won by the French Alizé Cornet with whom we have had an exclusive interview some while ago. You find it here.

She told us that she started playing tennis at the age of 4 years. ‘Can you imagine, that means that I have more than 20 years of tennis experience!” she says with a big smile. Why tennis? Were there other sports or hobbies you were interested in? ‘ O sure’, Alizé answers. ‘ I was interested in everything, I played basketball, I played the piano when I was young, but I started playing tennis because of my older brother. He is twelve years older than I’am and he was playing tennis. I saw him playing on the club and it looked like fun, so I thought let’s give it a try. Tennisphotoworld.com wasn’t present at that moment, but we have find a picture in our archive of Alizé at the age of 16 years playing at Roland Garros.

A question we have asked many tennis players is which aspect of the play they consider the most important (technical, physical, tactics or the mental aspect). The most of them say mental, but Alizé underlines that all the aspects are important. ‘It’s like a puzzle, you can’t pick one piece out. If you have a big talent, but you don’t work, you will not be successful. And when you work a lot, but you haven’t a little bit of talent, it’s also not going to work. So you have to put all the pieces together. They are all very important and you need them all. There is of course the mental aspect. If you can’t handle the pressure and the fact that tennis is so tough, it’s going to be difficult. There is an opponent on the court in front of you who is going to give you a hard time. So the mental aspect is important indeed, but what if you do not have the physical to compete? So I’m not able to choose just one aspect. it’s everything together. And when you have them all together, then it’s amazing to play tennis, because then you have fun on the court! If not,’ and then she laughs ‘I can be such a bad woman on the court.’

The mental strength of Alizé Cornet is enormously. Several times she managed to win a match when it looked like she was definitely going to lose. In the Katowice Open 2014 she lost a set (0-6) from Radwanska, but at the end she was the winner. Alizé: ‘I can be down on the court, but I can put myself to go up again during a match. I have always been a fighter and I say to my self, oké if you want to win, look what is necessary to do.’ We asked if she is someone who’s looking forward during the match and who is not looking backward staying angry about the faults she has made earlier. ‘In the past I was looking backward way more, but nowadays I don’t do that anymore. Sometimes there are matches that you should have won in two sets. But if you don’t, then just win the third! You can complain about the fact that you didn’t finished the mach in the second set, but it’s not going to help you. I have worked a lot on this aspect and now I focus on the points to come.

Asked about her favorite surface, she answers: ‘ I used to think that clay is my favorite, but I have reached my best results lately on hard court. I think my play is as efficient on hard court as it is on clay. On the other hand, I was grown up with clay courts, Roland Garros is a clay court and I have won three titles on clay. So I really like clay courts. But to be honest I love to play on grass as well. So my preference is multi surfaces’ she says laughing.

When we ask her if she always has a plan how to play her opponent after analyzing her opponents game, she answers: ‘ Yes I always analyze the play of my opponent en there is a plan. In fact that’s one of my strengths. The tactics of the play. With my coach I discuss the plan A how to play, and if that doesn’t work than on the court I have to change things and I switch to my plan B that I have to find out my self on the court. I’m happy that I’m able to do so, because sometimes a plan doesn’t work at all and then you have to come up with something totally different.

What would you be if you were not a tennis player? Alizé laughs: ‘A tennis player! I was born to be a tennis player and I can not imagine doing anything else.’ But there comes a time that you have to stop playing tennis, so what are you going to do after you’re tennis career? “Well, I like to be close to people, so I think something with communication. Maybe something with the radio or television, but for the coming years it will be tennis!