Seventh seed Alize Cornet survived a spirited challenge from Paraguayan lucky loser Veronica Cepede Royg in tonight’s feature match on centre court.
The Frenchwoman held serve only five times in the match, but still managed to grind out a 6-4 5-7 6-2 victory. The second round clash lasted just under three hours.
“It was a really, really tough battle for both of us,” Cornet said. “She played really, really well. She was all the time aggressive, playing faster than me and making me run. I just had to fight from the first to the last points, so I’m really happy I got through.”
Both players struggled on serve, with only one service hold in the first set. That came in the 10th game when Cornet served it out.
It was a trend that continued throughout the match – with world No.142 Cepede Royg not holding serve until midway through the second set.
Cornet’s frustration grew as the match progressed, becoming more animated as she desperately tried to gain some control.
“I go through so many emotions in the match, I fell and it was total drama sometimes,” Cornet admitted. “I’m just so happy to be into the quarters.”
There were a total of 22 service breaks in the match – and only eight holds. Cornet claimed she had never played in a match like it.
“I don’t think so in my whole life. It was unbelievable,” she said. “I guess we were both returning well, I did a lot of double faults which I think helped Veronica a little bit tonight but I won my serve in the most important moment at 5-2 in the third – that was the key moment and I did it. But I really have to try raise my level with my serve in the next match.”
Cornet took positives out of the hard-fought win, declaring it can only help her with the Australian Open staring next week.
“This match will give me many, many lessons, especially a week before a Slam and especially because it was a really tough battle and I won it,” she said. “It showed me I still have a lot of things to work on but the Grand Slam is next week and I have time to do it and I can work on it in the quarterfinal and that is a good thing. Nothing is better than matches.”
Cornet meets the winner of tomorrow’s second round match between ninth seed German Mona Barthel and Japan’s Naomi Osaka.
> See tomorrow’s order of play
> Getting to know… Alize Cornet
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