BRISBANE: Alize Cornet reached her biggest final in over two years after an “exhausted” Garbine Muguruza withdrew from their semifinal of the Brisbane International on Friday.
The unseeded Frenchwoman was leading her Spanish opponent 4-1 in the first set when Muguruza decided she couldn’t continue.
Although the official reason was a right thigh injury, the fourth seeded Spaniard, who had spent over seven hours on court in her first three rounds, conceded later that she was physically spent.
“I just felt, like, a little bit exhausted on the court, and I have been dealing, you know, with tiredness and issues with all these hard matches I have been playing, and today I was far from 100 percent,” she said.
Cornet will now play third seeded Czech Karolina Pliskova in the final, the first time the 26-year-old from Nice has reached the decider of a Premier Level tournament since she lost to Venus Williams in Dubai in 2014, after having beaten Serena in the semifinals.
A delighted Cornet said Muguruza’s withdrawal had been the perfect result.
“When she decided to stop I was a little bit surprised, but you know a little bit of luck never killed anybody,” she laughed.
“I’m just going to take it. I really enjoy the fact that I’m in the final. It’s a big day for me.
“I just learned that I’m going to be seeded at the Australian Open because of this match. So it’s two bits of good news at the same time.”
Cornet went into the tournament ranked 41st in the world, but will now climb to 31.
She could go as high as 26 if she wins Saturday’s final.
The 26-year-old said earlier in the week she wanted to be more consistent this year and enjoy her tennis.
Raonic downs Nadal in Brisbane
A more aggressive Milos Raonic moved into the semifinals of the Brisbane International when he beat Spaniard Rafael Nadal in a high quality quarterfinal on Friday.
Raonic, the defending champion, came back from losing the first set to overhaul Nadal 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, disappointing the sell-out crowd who were almost all cheering for a Spanish victory.
He will now play Bulgaria’s seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov following a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 winner over fourth ranked Dominic Thiem of Austria.
Raonic beat Roger Federer to win the 2016 title, the start of a successful year that saw him rise to three in the world.
But in the first set his serve was slightly off and Nadal took advantage, breaking in the fifth game to take the early lead.
Nadal had the chance to break again in the fifth game of the second set, but Raonic served his way out of trouble, saving the game with one of his 23 aces then breaking the Spaniard in the eighth game to level proceedings.
The Canadian then seized on a poor Nadal service game at the start of the third set to break him to love and when he fought off a break point of his own to go ahead 3-1, the momentum had swung to the defending champion.
Raonic, who lost to Nadal in the semifinals of an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi last week, said he knew he had to be more aggressive if he wanted to win.
“He is always going to defend better than me, so I don’t want to play him on those terms,” Raonic said.
Nadal said a poor 10-minute spell had changed the match.
“I had 10 minutes that were very hard, and playing against a player like him, that’s terrible,” he said.
“He played aggressive, he played great, his returns on my serve during those games were very, very aggressive, and the serve was huge.”
Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori will meet in the second semifinal following contrasting wins.
Second seed Wawrinka battled for over two-and-a-half hours before seeing off rising British player Kyle Edmund 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, 6-4, before Nishikori, the third seed, demolished young Australian Jordan Thompson 6-1, 6-1.
The unseeded Frenchwoman was leading her Spanish opponent 4-1 in the first set when Muguruza decided she couldn’t continue.
Although the official reason was a right thigh injury, the fourth seeded Spaniard, who had spent over seven hours on court in her first three rounds, conceded later that she was physically spent.
“I just felt, like, a little bit exhausted on the court, and I have been dealing, you know, with tiredness and issues with all these hard matches I have been playing, and today I was far from 100 percent,” she said.
Cornet will now play third seeded Czech Karolina Pliskova in the final, the first time the 26-year-old from Nice has reached the decider of a Premier Level tournament since she lost to Venus Williams in Dubai in 2014, after having beaten Serena in the semifinals.
A delighted Cornet said Muguruza’s withdrawal had been the perfect result.
“When she decided to stop I was a little bit surprised, but you know a little bit of luck never killed anybody,” she laughed.
“I’m just going to take it. I really enjoy the fact that I’m in the final. It’s a big day for me.
“I just learned that I’m going to be seeded at the Australian Open because of this match. So it’s two bits of good news at the same time.”
Cornet went into the tournament ranked 41st in the world, but will now climb to 31.
She could go as high as 26 if she wins Saturday’s final.
The 26-year-old said earlier in the week she wanted to be more consistent this year and enjoy her tennis.
Raonic downs Nadal in Brisbane
A more aggressive Milos Raonic moved into the semifinals of the Brisbane International when he beat Spaniard Rafael Nadal in a high quality quarterfinal on Friday.
Raonic, the defending champion, came back from losing the first set to overhaul Nadal 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, disappointing the sell-out crowd who were almost all cheering for a Spanish victory.
He will now play Bulgaria’s seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov following a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 winner over fourth ranked Dominic Thiem of Austria.
Raonic beat Roger Federer to win the 2016 title, the start of a successful year that saw him rise to three in the world.
But in the first set his serve was slightly off and Nadal took advantage, breaking in the fifth game to take the early lead.
Nadal had the chance to break again in the fifth game of the second set, but Raonic served his way out of trouble, saving the game with one of his 23 aces then breaking the Spaniard in the eighth game to level proceedings.
The Canadian then seized on a poor Nadal service game at the start of the third set to break him to love and when he fought off a break point of his own to go ahead 3-1, the momentum had swung to the defending champion.
Raonic, who lost to Nadal in the semifinals of an exhibition tournament in Abu Dhabi last week, said he knew he had to be more aggressive if he wanted to win.
“He is always going to defend better than me, so I don’t want to play him on those terms,” Raonic said.
Nadal said a poor 10-minute spell had changed the match.
“I had 10 minutes that were very hard, and playing against a player like him, that’s terrible,” he said.
“He played aggressive, he played great, his returns on my serve during those games were very, very aggressive, and the serve was huge.”
Stan Wawrinka and Kei Nishikori will meet in the second semifinal following contrasting wins.
Second seed Wawrinka battled for over two-and-a-half hours before seeing off rising British player Kyle Edmund 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, 6-4, before Nishikori, the third seed, demolished young Australian Jordan Thompson 6-1, 6-1.
