French Open 2024: Qinwen Zheng advances; Alize Cornet bows out
Chinese star Qinwen Zheng beat Alize Cornet to reach the second round at the 2024 French Open. The 21-year-old claimed a comfortable 6-2, 6-1 win in just over an hour in the first-round women's singles clash. Zheng has reached this stage at Roland Garros for the third successive year since her debut. With this, Cornet's illustrious career came to an end.
A look at match stats
Zheng won a total of 65 points and 25 winners throughout the match. Both of players served an ace each. The former had a win percentage of 81 and 35 in the first and second serves, respectively. She won 10 of her 11 net points. Zheng (19) had more unforced errors than Cornet (12). The latter recorded three double-faults each.
Zheng clears opening round
As mentioned, Zheng has reached the Roland Garros second round for the third successive year since her debut in 2022. She was knocked out in the fourth and second rounds in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Earlier this year, Zheng became the second Chinese player to reach a Grand Slam final. She eventually lost to defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in the summit clash.
Cornet retires with third-most major main-draw appearances
Cornet, who is among the veterans of tennis, recorded her 72nd Grand Slam main-draw appearance at the 2024 French Open. She surpassed Amy Frazier and Svetlana Kuznetsova, each of whom has 71 such appearances. Notably, Cornet is only behind Venus Williams (93) and Serena Williams (81) in terms of Grand Slam main-draw singles appearances in the Open Era.
69 successive major main-draw appearances
Cornet made her Grand Slam singles debut at 15 at the 2005 French Open, having received a singles main-draw wildcard. She upset Alina Jidkova before losing to third seed Amelie Mauresmo. In a career spanning nearly two decades, she had a solitary major quarter-final appearance, at the 2022 Australian Open. Notably, Cornet has the most successive Grand Slam main-draw appearances (69).
