There have been some significant retirements on both the ATP and WTA Tours in recent years, including Serena Williams herself.
Retirement was a particularly prevalent feature last year, with Rafael Nadal saying farewell to tennis at the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga.
Andy Murray also retired from the sport, with the former world number one playing his last match alongside Dan Evans at the Paris Olympics.
The Brit is now on the ATP Tour in a different capacity, with Murray coaching Novak Djokovic, despite being former rivals.
While Murray is no longer an active player, a WTA player who did retire last year has decided that they are not ready to hang up their rackets just yet.
Alize Cornet announces her comeback after receiving wildcard for WTA tournament
Last year, Alize Cornet announced that she would be retiring and bringing an end to her 19-year professional career on the WTA Tour.
The charismatic Frenchwoman played the final tournament of her career at Roland Garros, taking to Court Philippe-Chatrier one more time.
Cornet was convincingly beaten by Qinwen Zheng in her finals singles match, but received a warm ovation from her home crowd as she left the matchcourt for the last time, or so we thought.
It has now been announced by the WTA 250 tournament in Rouen that Cornet has received a wildcard for their indoor clay court tournament next month.
In a statement to the tournament, the 35-year-old revealed that she had been training specifically to target this tournament as her comeback.
“I am extremely happy to be back playing on the courts of the Open Capfinances Rouen Métropole for what is for me a very exciting return to competition,” said Cornet.
“When I started training again two months ago, I immediately had this goal in mind, to be ready for Rouen and I thank Charles [Roche – tournament director] for giving me this chance to be able to enter the main draw directly.
“You thought you were rid of me, that is not quite the case yet! So see you soon to get excited again all together.”
Cornet is one of two wildcards to be announced for the tournament so far, with compatriot and former world number four Caroline Garcia receiving the other.
The WTA event in Rouen gets underway on Monday April 14, with Elina Svitolina, Linda Noskova, Magda Linette and Elina Avanesyan as the top four seeds.
Alize Cornet holds incredible record over Serena Williams
Cornet has achieved some great things throughout her career, winning six WTA singles titles and reaching a career-high ranking of world number 11.
Perhaps the standout achievement of her career is the incredible record that she has against Serena Williams.
Cornet played world number one Williams three times in 2014, and won every single one of those meetings by dropping just one set.
Williams only lost eight matches throughout the entirety of that year, with Cornet contributing to nearly 38% of those defeats.
Upset victories became a bit of a trademark of Cornet’s, having collected 25 top 10 wins throughout her career.
Alongside her wins over Williams, another of Cornet’s more notable victories came at Wimbledon in 2022 when she ended the 37-match winning streak of Iga Swiatek.
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