Tatjana Maria, who accused Alize Cornet of gamesmanship during their second-round French Open encounter, says she received backing in the locker room and is also considering legal action against officials.
Maria said she and her husband spoke to attorneys not long before Maria took to the doubles court to play Cornet again. In that match, Maria and partner Madison Brengle defeated Cornet and Magda Linette, 6-4, 2-6, 6-1.
"I never received so many messages," she said following the doubles win. "Even players today, more than 100 players came to me and said they are behind me, and it was amazing what she did and how she behaved ... So many people said, ‘OK, we are behind you and you are our winner.’ This doesn’t help, but it was nice to hear all those messages.
"It’s not about me losing a match. I really accept that I lost this match yesterday, but I think [what] happened on that court, that [wasn’t] really the rules and I felt it was a little bit against me.”
The 28-year-old German said any legal action taken would not be against Cornet, but rather against officials she says were not enforcing the rules.
"My husband is taking care of this ... maybe against the tournament, maybe it’s against the ITF, the WTA," she said.
Following their match, Maria said Cornet demonstrated "not fair play," taking a medical break because of cramping and delaying play in front of the partisan crowd. Cornet said she was cramping, but called the trainer over to look at her hip, which was also bothering her.
"For me and for a lot of people, she had a cramp and she couldn’t move," said Maria. “And the rule is that you cannot be treated for cramps. But in this moment I didn’t understand why everybody was running on the court to help her. That’s not the rule ... [And] we saw it also on video that she took longer than the allowed 20 seconds [between points], so a lot of things happened that were not fair."
Cornet will play Venus Williams in the third round.