Cornet Stuns Wimbledon Champion Kerber

The Rogers Cup in Montreal saw its first big upset of the week on Wednesday afternoon. As it turned out, World No. 4 Angelique Kerber was knocked out in straight sets by Alize Cornet. The French woman has a reputation of being a WTA giant-killer and she certainly lived up to it with this scalp.

Kerber had come to Montreal in high spirits after winning her maiden Wimbledon Grand Slam. This also happened to be her third Grand Slam title. It was made all the more special as she beat Serena Williams in the final.

“After Wimbledon I took a little bit of time off to realize what had happened, what I had achieved at Wimbledon—one of my biggest dreams came true,” Kerber said. “Now we are here in Montreal and it starts again, and the hardcourt season begins. I’m looking forward to playing again.”

However, Cornet had other ideas and ended the German’s run before it began. In the opening match of the day on center court, the Frenchwoman stormed to a 5-2 lead. Kerber managed to fight back from there. She clinched the next two games to narrow the lead to 5-4. However, Cornet managed to hold on to close the set at 6-4.

From there, it was the Cornet show as the unforced errors accumulated from Kerber’s side. The ordeal ended with one last backhand return long, Kerber’s 32nd unforced error of the match.

“Of course, it was not the plan to play just one match. But at the end this is tennis: every tournament starts from zero,” Kerber said. “Now I will try to get ready, learn from the match for the next tournament.”

Meanwhile, Cornet said, “The first set was definitely a difficult one. I played very well, and when she came back from 5-2 to 5-4, I really felt under pressure. She was playing better and better. The fact that I closed the set out there was huge for me, because I got more relaxed, and I think she got down.

“She just won Wimbledon and had an amazing season so far, so I’m just really happy with this win.”

The No. 34-ranked player has registered eight career wins over Top 5 players in her career. Her first scalp was No.5-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova at Rome back in 2008. She also has three career wins over World No.1s, all against Serena Williams in 2014.