Transcendance: Alize Cornet

I have been an under the radar fan of Alize Cornet for a very long time. Her passion for tennis competition is always discernible by the expression on her face. Cornet is also currently on an amazing streak of longevity that seems to have escaped widespread attention by most of the tennis world. When Cornet steps onto the court at Roland Garros at the French Open next week, it will mark her 61st consecutive appearance at a Grand Slam. To underscore the achievement, she has appeared in every single Grand Slam draw for over 15 years.

What makes that streak even more impressive is that she has won relatively few tournaments along the way. Cornet has won only six WTA singles titles in her career. She is a great player that has never enjoyed a significant breakthrough. The fact that she has played so well for so long and still toils in relative obscurity is a testament to her perseverance and dogged determination.

Transcendence divulges that it hasn’t been easy for Cornet. She is a perfectionist that struggles to believe she is doing well enough. She is extremely candid about her psychological struggles and dissatisfaction experienced in her career. Her diary turned book may have originated as an exercise of psychotherapy.

Cornet enthusiastically embraces meditation and claims that her practice has resulted in changes that carries her closer to what she would regard as the greatest victory of her career: Peace with herself. The book reflects her enthusiasm for a newfound focus on enjoying the extraordinary life of a tennis player and learning to be her own best friend.

Transcendence describes life on the WTA tour as “Luxury homelessness” for those players who are doing well. Cornet expresses concern for how prize money and resources are distributed between the top players and those outside the top 100. Additionally, she highlights how the best players can afford larger teams, essentially “buying” advantages.

Cornet is regarded as the WTA player who first pushed the issue when Peng Shuai disappeared after accusing a high ranking communist official of sexual assault. Of the many players mentioned by name in Transcendence, Peng Shuai was conspicuous by her absence. The book went into publication prior to the situation with Li Na unfolded.

Perhaps the most well known episode in Cornet’s career came when she was issued a Code Violation for changing her shirt during a match at the US Open in 2020. Her description of the distance between the courts and player restroom facilities provides some “behind the scenes” perspectives on how rushed players can be in these situations. The Code Violation was later rescinded after player and commendation outcry. That even ultimately lead to substantive changes in the player wardrobe standards on the WTA tour.

Before reading her account in Transcendence, I was unaware that Cornet had once been suspended for excessing “no shows” under the Anti-Doping Administration and Management System (ADAMS), but was later exonerated. Her description of how players interact with the system as well as highlighting things that can go wrong is the most detailed I have come across to date.

While Cornet regularly plays for the France in Federation Cup (now Billie Jean King Cup), she does not come off as a huge fan of the French Federation. In addition to concerns over how players on the Fed Cup team were treated through various coaching permutations, Cornet is also critical of how her ADAMS suspension was handled.

Alize Cornet wrote in the epilogue that she didn’t really know where she was going when she started writing her book. After reading Transcendence: Diary of a Tennis Addict, I am not clearly sure where she ended up either. My immediate reaction was “What did I just read?” mixed with a clear sense that the book was still worth the time spent reading it.

This book is not the “typical” active player biography, which is just as well because that is arguably my least favorite genre of tennis book. I highly recommend Transcendence: Diary of a Tennis Addict for its illumination of mental health as well as behind the scenes insight into the current WTA tour.

Transcendence: Diary of a Tennis Addict