Dubai: Alize Cornet is hoping her close loss at the 2008 Beijing Olympics will inspire her against Serena Williams in their singles semi-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Women’s Open here later on Friday.
Faced with the prospect of becoming only the second Frenchwoman to win the singles crown in Dubai, Cornet said that she fancied her chances against the world’s best player.
Cornet got the better of a stubborn Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5, 6-3 to set a meeting with tournament’s top seed.
Ranked No.26 in the world, Cornet has a mere three titles on the WTA Tour compared to the astounding list of 58 crowns in Serena’s possession so far. The two have met thrice already with the American winning all three times.
Cornet has reached the semi-final round of a Premier event for the second time this year – she also made last four stage at the Paris Indoors earlier this month. Prior to this, Cornet’s last semi-final appearance was in 2008 in New Haven. After Rome 2008, this will be Cornet’s second Premier final of her career.
Huge bonus
“The key will be to do a lot of things better. I will try to be aggressive and defensive at the same time and I will also try and serve good as I know she will try to kill me on the second serve,” Cornet said.
“For me personally this is a huge bonus to be able to see how I stand against the world’s best player. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics we had a huge game that went into three sets (that Cornet lost 6-3, 3-6, 4-6) and I will try and inspire myself from that match,” the Frenchwoman added.
