Day 3 - Match of the day session: End of the affair?

“Roland-Garros represents 20 years of my life,” she said as she made her final preparations for her final event. “It was my first tournament. It was my first Grand Slam tournament when I was 15, and it will be my 20th this year. This is where I wanted to say farewell to professional tennis. I am glad to have reached that point in my life where I can say goodbye in front of my fans and my family.

“Roland-Garros is a love story that was not always easy, and I think it's the case also for all the French tennis players. So I'm delighted to have chosen my last tournament, because it's a lot of symbolism for me.”

Keeping her emotions in check has taken a lot of willpower but she thinks she is coping well enough (she still has at least one match to play, after all). That is where the regimen she has followed religiously for more than half her life comes into play. Those routines may have driven her mad over the years but now they are a comfort, something familiar to hold on to.

“I try to stay focused on practice,” she said. “I do my preparation as I have done every year, as I have done for 20 years, with the usual dedication and commitment and the consistency. I try to put the emotional side aside, and to focus on what is concrete: practice, the opening coming up.”

She did not ask for any favours from the tournament given this is her grand farewell but, instead, she relied on Amelie Mauresmo, the tournament director, to find an appropriate court and time for what could be her last match. The draw pitted her against the world No.7, Qinwen Zheng, while Mauresmo and her team have done Cornet proud: hers will be the first match on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Tuesday. 

For Cornet, the affair may be over but the love will never die.

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Four to watch:

Court Philippe-Chatrier, 2nd match: Casper Ruud vs Felipe Meligeni Alves

In what has been billed as the most open Roland-Garros in years, Ruud is quietly going about his business. He knows his way around these courts having reached the final twice and after winning the Geneva title at the weekend, his confidence is returning.

Early exits in Madrid and Rome left him short on match play so he took himself off to Switzerland. “If you come to all the slams, if you are there the week before, you have close to 400 or 500 players walking around wanting to practice,” he said, explaining his logic, “and in practice what do they do with each other? You play matches in practice. So for me it's like why don't you just go and play a tournament?” And, in Casper’s case, you go and win the tournament.

Court 14, third match: Katie Boulter vs Paula Badosa

Here is a little-known stat: Boulter is the world No.28, the No.26 seed here (her first seeding at a Grand Slam) and she is 27 years old. And she has never won a WTA Tour level match on clay. Ever.

But she has galloped up the rankings of late – she was outside the top 100 just 18 months ago – and now she feels ready to take on the unique challenge of clay. “It’s a surface I feel I can really grow on and get better at,” she said. “It’s another challenge. I feel I thrive when I have different challenges.”

And Badosa, the former world No.2, is a challenge. Her ranking may be down to No.139 but that is only because she spent much of last year at home nursing a serious back injury. 

Court 9, third match: Mirra Andreeva vs Emina Bektas

This time last year, Andreeva had just turned 16 and was ranked No.143 in the world. We had heard talk of the teenage prodigy but no one knew much about her. And then she came through the qualifying competition here and went on to reach the third round without dropping a set. She even took the first set from Coco Gauff before losing.

Coming back this year, she is the world No.38 with a fourth round finish at the Australian Open and a quarter-final run at the Madrid Open to her name.

In Bektas, she faces a 31-year-old Roland-Garros debutante (this is only her third Grand Slam appearance) – this should be Andreeva’s day.

Court Suzanne-Lenglen, 4th match: Holger Rune vs Dan Evans

It has been a reasonably solid rather than spectacular year so far for Rune, the 21-year-old with the fiery personality and the thumping groundstrokes complemented by a willingness to come forward. There is not a lot that Rune cannot do with bat and ball but in Evans, he faces an unusual foe.

Evans – Evo to his mates – is old school: not the tallest of men (5ft 9ins, 1.75m) but he serves and volleys, he constructs his point with skill and guile and he has sensational touch.

In theory, Rune, the world No.13, should ease through (Evo is No.62 after a difficult few months) but whatever the result, this should be an entertaining watch.