MY ACCOUNT
Alize Cornet “felt out of breath all the time” during her Australian Open quarter-final loss to Danielle Collins.
Collins was too good for Cornet in a 7-5 6-1 victory on Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday, reaching her second Australian Open semi-final in four years.
The American 27th seed hit 28 winners and 29 unforced errors in a strong performance against Cornet, who was playing her maiden major quarter-final.
Cornet said Collins, who will face Iga Swiatek in the last four, never allowed her to settle at Melbourne Park.
“Well, she’s very powerful, even more than what I expected. Her ball is going really fast in the air and she takes the ball super early,” the Frenchwoman said.
“All the time you feel really oppressed. I felt out of breath all the time. I couldn’t, like, place my game. She just never let me do it, never gave me the time to do it. Yeah, she’s impressive.
“But today she was pretty quiet. She didn’t scream that much. When I see her playing on TV, sometimes she’s yelling, ‘C’mon.’ She looks like a lion.
“Today I don’t think I gave her enough battle so she could express herself.”
Collins was playing her first quarter-final since the 2020 French Open and dictated from the outset against Cornet.
The 28-year-old hopes her experience in the latter stages of tournaments helps her late in the Australian Open.
“Yeah, I think now that I’ve made quarter-finals at French and semi-finals here before, I think I can use those experiences to certainly help me in the tight-pressure moments on court. I can use that to my advantage,” Collins said.
“Last time I was here in the semi-finals I had never done that before. I’ve made some deeper runs in tournaments since then. Hopefully I can carry the confidence that I’ve gained over the last couple years and be able to use that to my advantage.”
