Daily Times

PARIS: France’s Alize Cornet dug deep to recover from a set down to defeat Italian Sara Errani 2-6 6-2 6-3 in a show of powerful baseline hitting on Sunday to progress to the second round of the French Open. Cornet struggled to find her forehand range in the first set, at one point venting her frustration at a ball boy and drawing boos from the crowd, before she began to dictate the match from the back of the court with her powerful backhand. But as the former Roland Garros junior champion rediscovered her length from the baseline, she roused the crowd from its post-lunch slumber, driving the ball low and hard and forcing the Italian into defensive strokes as her comeback took hold in the second set. Roared on by the Philippe Chatrier court, the Frenchwoman squandered several match points in the deciding set, first with a double fault and then a run of overbaked shots from the back before Errani netted the ball to hand Cornet victory.

Published in Daily Times, May 28^th 2018.