Dubai: Frenchwoman Alize Cornet drew a lot of positives despite losing her final against Venus Williams on Saturday.
Cornet tried to do one better on her semi-final win against world number one Serena Williams with a triumph against the older Williams in the final, but Venus proved too strong with a smooth 6-3, 6-0 win in an hour and-a-half.
“I think the first set was very, very important, and that’s why I was a bit emotional, because I wanted to do better. I was the first one to break, and it was just a shame not to be a little bit ahead in the set,” Cornet related.
“But this week was for sure a great week for me. I beat the two top-ten players, two top-20 players. I didn’t miss my final completely, but for sure I didn’t play my best tennis,” she added.
However, the 24-year-old was pleased with her performance leading up to the final.
“It was a great week for me. It’s always tough to finish like this, and I believed in my chances today. I would have loved to make a better final with a little bit more of suspense. And the score is really too hard to finish such a good week,” Cornet said.
“But I will have to take all the positive things out of this week. I think there is a lot, so I’m still very motivated for the rest of the season,” she added.
“I hope I’m still a little bit the future of the tennis at 24 years old. I’m not dead yet. Now that you see that Venus is 33 and she’s still playing is unbelievable, I guess I have some many years coming ahead of me. Yeah, I think we definitely, are the future of tennis.”
