Alizé Cornet remains the last Frenchwoman to have reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open, in 2022. In position to join her, Océane Dodin (95th) failed in this quest against the Chinese Qinwen Zheng (15th in the world, seeded 12). The Frenchwoman was swept aside 6-0, 6-3, in fifty-nine minutes, at the end of a non-match, where she never managed to put her ultra-aggressive game in place.
Dodin had not given up a single set since the start of the tournament. She only took twenty-four minutes to lose the first set, 6-0. Paralyzed, she moved extremely poorly, if at all, and the games went by at lightning speed. A true lone rider, perfectly summed up by cruel stats for the Frenchwoman: zero break points, eight unforced errors and only eleven points collected (out of 37).
She only saw a short break: a break at 1-3 in the second set, largely attributable to her opponent’s errors (a double fault and two forehand blunders). But Zheng took back the reins in the next game (4-2). Impeccable on serve, where she intelligently varied the zones, the Chinese concluded the game with her hand. She had hit 19 winning shots, compared to only five for the Frenchwoman.
In an almost completely decapitated upper part of the table, Zheng will now face Anna Kalinskaya (75th in the world), victorious over Jasmine Paolini (seeded 26), 6-4, 6-2. The other quarter-final will pit Linda Noskova (50th) against Dayana Yastremska (93rd).