Feeling like a teenager, Alizé Cornet, 35, makes triumphant comeback from retirement

Alizé Cornet took a slice of Roland Garros with her when she bid adieu to tennis on Court Philippe-Chatrier last spring.

But though the former world No. 11 had ostensibly closed the door on tennis, she left a window open.

“I didn’t want it to be a real end,” Cornet told me ahead of her first match in over 10 months, having announced a return to action in March. “Maybe I was scared of the idea that I couldn’t come back if I wanted to.”

A week after making her record 69th consecutive major main-draw appearance, the French star froze her ranking at No. 102 and stepped into an immensely fulfilling off-court life. She promoted the release of her second novel, tried her hand at reality television with a forthcoming appearance on Les Traîtres—a French-language edition of *The Traitors*—and even analyzed the sport from the commentary booth.

“I did so much in my career, and I achieved so much, there wasn’t necessarily a need to come back,” explained Cornet who, in addition to her record-breaking Grand Slam consistency, won six WTA titles, shocked Serena Williams at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships, and reached the 2022 Australian Open quarterfinals.

She had also never had a break, the very nature of her Grand Slam record implying that the 35-year-old was never away from tennis for more than a few weeks at a time.

“I was just so tired,” said Cornet, who uses her instincts as a storyteller to emphasize her imagery. “I was exhausted by the travel and playing. The stress of everything became too much for me. I really thought that it was the end, and that I was ready for my next chapter. And I was! I really enjoyed it for nine months.”

But by the time the 2024 off-season rolled around, Cornet was missing the emotions only a tennis court could provide.

I feel like I’m a teenager going for her first WTA tournament. It’s really cool! Alizé Cornet

“I wanted to be on the court every day,” she recalled, adding with a laugh, “I was asking my boyfriend to play with me, and at one point he told me it was time to go and find some hitting partners because he couldn’t play every day.”

She picked up her practices in February, eager to test her physical resolve against the rigors of tournament preparation.

“The body response was the biggest unknown for me,” she said.

“But after three weeks, I saw everything was aligned, I was feeling great and I was going to practice with a smile on my face every day, I thought, ‘Maybe it could be an idea to come back for a little bit.’”

Her most memorable matches were rarely happy, smiling affairs. With her speed and resilience, Cornet regularly drew opponents into bruising contests that often surpassed the three-hour mark. A born entertainer, she nonetheless won crowds the world over with her expressive emotional honesty and flair for the dramatics.

It was the fans she wondered about in the days before announcing a comeback so soon after standing on Chatrier for a retirement ceremony.

“I feared the judgement a little bit,” she confessed. “I didn’t know how they would react, and how it would seem to see me back on the court.

“But actually, everyone is as excited as me, so I’m very happy about it.”

Speaking days before her first tournament, a WTA 125K in La Bisbal d'Empordà, Spain, Cornet hoped to bring that joy onto the court.

“I’ve thought about what it would be like to come back with this new state of mind, this freshness and will to play, something like a kid’s mentality, something very joyful. This was the thing I was lacking at the end of my career.

“Everybody wishes they could feel a bit lighter on the court and have that lighter spirit, and I think I needed this break to find it.”

Though she called this a “last dance” of sorts, Cornet is already thinking beyond the clay-court schedule she set for the next few weeks, and with a 6-1, 6-2 victory to kick off her comeback, this lighter and brighter Alizé Cornet may be coming back for more than just another slice of Court Philippe-Chatrier.

“I feel like I’m a teenager going for her first WTA tournament,” she said. “It’s really cool!”