Thanks to the fairly easy qualification of Alizé Cornet against the Japanese Nao Hibino (6-2, 6-2), Wednesday, the French managed a 4/4 in the first round of the Wimbledon tournament. After Caroline Garcia and Diane Parry on Monday, and Varvara Gracheva a little earlier against the Italian Camila Giorgi, the former world number 11 quickly took the lead over her opponent, drafted from qualifying by immediately breaking to lead 3- 0 in the first set.
Solid on her commitment, she concluded the set with a second break in 27 minutes (6-2). The second set seemed like a formality until 4-0 for the Frenchwoman. But Hibino rebelled by erasing a break to come back to 4-2 and get a 4-3 ball on Cornet’s serve. The French then tightened the game to keep her commitment before taking over that of the Japanese and finishing in 1h06. In the next round, she will need a real feat to hope to pass since she will find the Kazakh defending champion Elena Rybakina.