What tennis star Alizé Cornet learned from “Traitors” TV stint

Note: This post contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Les Traîtres, currently airing in France.

Tennis players know when you’re lying. Whether it’s in practice or anywhere below the professional level, players are often tasked with calling their own lines, making it the rare sport where a “win at all costs” motive meets opportunity.

Perhaps it’s this experience that will allow Alizé Cornet to go far in the fourth season of Les Traîtres, the French-language edition of the popular game show *The Traitors*.

Read more: Alizé Cornet to star in French edition of “The Traitors”

A former world No. 11 in the midst of a WTA comeback, Cornet filmed Les Traîtres during her year-long sabbatical from the sport, immediately drawn in by the prestige adaptation of games like Mafia and Warewolf.

“I never watched the show before the producers contacted me,” she told me before the show’s April 3 premiere. “So, I watched a few episodes and I got into it so much. I was so intrigued by this game of strategy and lying, sort of treasonous behavior!

“I didn’t want to participate in something I wasn’t convinced would be good, but the whole game was super well done, and it’s a quality show.”

Playing alongside fellow athletes, musicians, and even politicians, Cornet arrived in Château de Bournel and, beginning the game as “Loyal” (or “Faithful”) and immediately sets to work at uncovering potential traitors. Host Éric Antoine guides them through various challenges in the French countryside.

“I was really eager to meet new people,” said Cornet, who is into the quarterfinals of her first tournament since last May at a WTA 125K in La Bisbal d'Empordà, Spain. “That was something that really motivated me to join the show, meeting people from different horizons: singers, actors, dancers. These were all people I would never have the chance to meet in other situations.”

What I think helped me the most in the game was my ability to remain very calm and rational the whole time. These were not exactly ever my strengths on the court, I have to say! Alizé Cornet

She appears on target from the first breakfast when she correctly suspects Logfive, a content creator with over 3.5 million followers on Tik Tok.

“I didn’t want to be a Traitor!” insisted Cornet. “I feel like I’m not so good at lying! I’m pretty transparent and very expressive with my face, so I was so sure everyone would read me like a book. So, I was really stressed out about possibly being a Traitor, to the point where I asked production not to make me one!”

Cornet could yet become a traitor as the game unfolds. Traitors typically have the chance to recruit Faithfuls to their team as their own numbers dwindle. No stranger to pressure, the Nice native surprised herself in how she handled the game, particularly the pressure cooker that is the Round Table, when the Faithfuls gather to banish a suspected Traitor.

“I think it’s very paradoxical in that, what I think helped me the most in the game was my ability to remain very calm and rational the whole time. These were not exactly ever my strengths on the court, I have to say!” she said with a laugh.

“So, I discovered a lot of things about myself, the fact that I actually can be really calm under pressure, consistent in my way of thinking and strategy-building.”

The first tennis player to compete on a Traitors series, Cornet is eager to see her colleagues try their hand at the game.

“It would have to be someone who can hide his or her emotions really well, someone who can remain stable and isn’t easy to read.”

She tagged Miami Open finalist Jessica Pegula an ideal Traitor candidate—“No one would suspect her”—but was less optimistic about another American’s chances.

“Oh, I’m afraid they would kick her out in the first round!” she joked of Danielle Collins. “The game was made for her, so it would be too obvious. She already has the ‘Traitor’ laugh!”

Cornet is still in touch with her fellow Traîtres players and would recommend the experience to anyone, be they civilian or celebrity.

“Even if we had to lie to each other the whole time, we actually became friends! It was very exhausting to be on camera for 10 days in a row, but it was very enriching.”