Cornet advances to semifinal with comeback win against Cibulkova

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Alize Cornet had to come back in order to make her way to the semifinals of the Brisbane International Thursday. The French star had five double faults in the second set but held on to win against Dominika Cibulkova 6-3, 7-5 at Pat Rafter Arena at Queensland Tennis Centre

The two have met five times over the last three seasons with the Slovakian winning three of them. Cornet got the best of her in Beijing defeating Cibulkova in three sets after losing to her in Wuhan. So far the French star has been on a good run at the Brisbane tourney taking out Elena Vesnina and Christina McHale. With her biggest challenge coming against the second seed, Cornet would need to maintain energy and her strength on service to take out the world number five.

She got into a draw with her on the opening serve coming back down 40-30 forcing deuce. The two played through five breaks until a victory for the French star gave her the opening lead. Cibulkova answered in kind with a strong serve in the second leveling things right off. It was the last win she saw for a while as Cornet took over the serve and never let go. She broke Cibulkova to the point of taking a 4-1 hold leading to the Slovakian to take time with her coach.

She struck back to take the next two as Cornet racked up the double faults putting Cibulkova down a game after seven. The French star regrouped quickly to continue holding the lead before capturing the opening set that took 52 minutes to finish.

The two started the second set with wins on the serve until Cornet went on a runaway. The French star took control of the set and never saw her opponent bring the heat. It wasn’t until the late stages of the set that Cibulkova started to come back with force. She held Cornet from closing out the match the next two games, but the adversity was alive on the other end.

By some magnificence, Cibulkova rallied back with tremendous adversity to level the playing field in the tenth game avoiding elimination for a time. It led her to fight for one chance at control going into the 11^th were keeping her momentum was key. The leverage still carried with Cornet who was ready to bring an end to the long second set.

She took the 11^th by storm before finding the final bit of adversity in play for the 12^th. Cibulkova made Cornet earn the match victory which ended on point where the return from the Slovakian fell long of the baseline ending the two hour and three-minute competition. Cornet had five double faults while carrying a first serve percent just above 50 percent.

The third straight win gave the 26-year-old much to celebrate about but her quest for a finals spot doesn’t get any easier. She’ll await the winner between Garbine Muguruza and Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia that would take place Friday.