Alize Cornet retires from tennis at French Open

May 28 (UPI) -- Alize Cornet, who won six singles titles and achieved a career-high No. 11 ranking, officially retired from tennis Tuesday after a straight-sets loss to Qinwen Zheng in the first round of the 2024 French Open.

Cornet announced in April that the clay-court Grand Slam event would be the final tournament of her career. The 34-year-old was a wild-card entrant at the French Open. Her run at Roland Garros lasted just 83 minutes.

French tennis officials played a tribute video for Cornet after her loss on Court Philippe-Chatrier. She was moved to tears as the footage played, prompting applause from the crowd.

"It's a story that spans 20 years of professional tennis, but in fact more like 30 years since I started tennis at 4 years old," Cornet said on the Tennis Channel broadcast. "So, I'm going to have to leave all of that behind me and start a second chapter of my life.

"It's scary in a sense. ... The emotion overwhelms me because I actually see the progress I have made and I am super happy with myself and with everything I have accomplished."

Zheng, of China, broke her French counterpart's serve six times. The No. 7 player in the WTA singles rankings also fired 25 winners and logged 14 forced errors.

Cornet, ranked No. 106, converted just 1 of 4 break points. She totaled nine winners and 28 forced errors in her professional tennis finale.

Zheng will meet No. 66 Ashlyn Krueger of the United States or No. 79 Tamara Korpatsh of Germany in the second round.

Cornet made her professional debut in 2006. She won 543 singles matches, but advanced to the quarterfinals of just one Grand Slam -- the 2022 Australian Open. She won her first singles title at the 2008 Budapest Grand Prix. She won additional titles in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2018.

She holds the women's record for the most consecutive (69) Grand Slam main draw appearances.