French Open crowd turn on one of their own as Cornet retires in potential last appearance

Alize Cornet was booed by the home crowd when she was forced to retire injured at 0-6 0-3 down in her French Open third round match. The Frenchwoman arrived onto court with both of her thighs heavily strapped and could barely move against Qinwen Zheng, who won all nine games before advancing to the second week with the world No 40's retirement, as former pro Barbara Schett admitted it could have been the 32-year-old's last appearance at her home Grand Slam.

Cornet arrived onto Court Philippe-Chatrier with both of her thighs heavily taped for her third round match against Zheng. The world No 40 had come through a rollercoaster match against 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the previous round but had appeared to injure her legs after attempting a wide slide in the second round clash.

And the Frenchwoman looked physically hindered by her new injuries as she could barely move against the world No 70 who is makign her debut at the clay-court Grand Slam. Cornet quickly lost the first set 6-0 and went 3-0 down in the second set before retreating to her bench at the changeover and putting her head in her hands. "There's no point, I'm just sufferering," she told herself.

The former world No 11 then asked the umpire how to retire the match, admitting: "Do I tell her that I need to stop? Because I want to stop," before shaking Zheng's hand and allowing the Chinese debutant to advance to the second week.

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As the pair shook hands, the Court Philippe-Chatrier crowd started booing and whistling at their own player for retiring the match, a move that was slammed by Eurosport commentators. "She tried her best, you could see how hampered she was.