Swinging from Vines: Alizé Cornet’s Happy Birthday
Every artist has a go-to source of inspiration.
Painters look to nature. Sculptors are moved by tangible form.
Many of Vine‘s cleverest content creators have Alizé Cornet.
The No. 1 Frenchwoman has always been too big for the static image. Such a stifling medium can hardly contain her physical technique, incredulous expressions, and signature red cap all at once.
A few years ago, this paragon of dynamic movement would have been destined for GIF-itude. But the rise of the six-second video player reveals how even that has its limits, for it cuts off her ever-present audible aspect.
Silence Alizé Cornet? Sacrebleu!
From the very start of 2015, Melbourne’s No. 19 seed has had her Vine game on point, starting in Perth when she aced Great Britain’s Andy Murray:
Feeling the pressure to wrest the spotlight from Agnieszka Radwanska a few days later, a split screen sent her over the edge.
A quiet and cool Day 2 Down Under allowed Cornet a brief respite to begin her Australian Open campaign, but it proved to merely be a calm before the storm. Facing Czech rising star Denisa Allertova, she appeared to be in complete control, eager to cap off her 25th birthday with a berth into the third round. Cruising though the opening set, things got more complicated as Cornet reached the finish line.
And where there is complication, Cornet is there to add color.
Warning: headphones recommended (full volume is not)
Serving for the match not once, but twice, the Frenchwoman was broken each time, allowing Allertova to surge back and take the second set in a tiebreak. On the hottest day of the tournament, one that had already claimed even more colorful compatriot, Adrian Mannarino, Cornet was clearly not pleased.
Ever undaunted, however, she regrouped well in the final set, nabbing two breaks to run away with the match, 6-4, 6-7(2), 6-2.
The No. 19 seed stands one match from the second week of the Australian Open, a place that represents a veritable career crossroads. She has not been past the third round since 2009, when she failed to convert two match points against then-No. 3 Dinara Safina, losing the final five games to the eventual runner-up. This time Cornet gets last year’s finalist, Dominika Cibulkova, who has struggled but looks solid thus far, and has never lost to the theatrical Frenchwoman.
But Cornet rarely appears concerned with the past. Her vines show how she lives in the moment, all too happy to finish her match and greet her fans, who donned party hats in celebration of their favorite’s special occasion.
Happy Birthday, Alizé. Ne changez jamais!
The Tennis Island 
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