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AEGON INTERNATIONAL

June 22, 2016

Kristina Mladenovic

Eastbourne, England

K. MLADENOVIC/A. Friedsam

6-4, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. That was a bit of a tricky match out there. How do you feel about that one?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Yeah, I guess that's the beauty of the grass, first of all. I think I had the very tough opponent today. I mean, there is no surprise she was here today in the third round. She had a huge win yesterday against Lucie.

I could feel it out there. She's a very powerful player. She serves big. I would say she's very complete player. She has good groundstrokes. She has very good variety like some slices, dropshot volleys, and her serve is quite powerful.

So that was a very difficult match. I think I played really well, very solid, especially on the serve. I had a high percentage of first serve. That was quite good. I was holding important service game throughout all the match.

Yeah, I think the key today was also like my return, the first shots of each point. She was serving big, and I managed somehow to put the ball in play. You know, just to maybe force her a little bit.

Overall I think that was, as you said, a very close match but very good tennis match.

Q. You've got a lot of momentum at the moment. The Paris win sort of sparked it, and now you're on grass?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Yeah, well, what I said previously, I really enjoy grass. It's one of my favorite surface. It's true, like you said, there is a momentum with -- you know, everything, to be honest was a quite exciting last few weeks, month for me, for Caroline, for us as a team.

But I think overall is the work, you know, I'm putting on every single day, like a daily routine. I would say that the work is paying off. You know, I don't feel like it's just going because I have the momentum and everything is going as I want, because like conditions are totally different every week. The good result I could have was on clay, also in my singles. And during French Open and now, you know, I had to switch. We all had to switch on grass. It's totally different.

It's very tricky, but I think, you know, my focus is right at the moment. I feel like the hard work is paying off. I was working on different things from the beginning of the year. Wasn't very paying off as I wanted from the beginning of the year, but I'm very glad to see how it's going right now.

Q. When you're playing at your best, when you're playing and you're happy with the way you're playing in a given match, what is working for you? Is it the serve, power, variety, net movement? What's the one thing you key it on and say I'm locked in?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Well, I guess my answer is going to be kind of perfectionist. I would answer you, well, when I serve like today when it's big serves, high percentage, and I hold my serve quite often, I would like to be tough to break, that's a big thing. I mean, if I hold my serve, then, you know, I have kind of a lot of work to do on returns and I feel very comfortable.

But also in the entire game, you know, when I feel good, like forehand/backhand is like both quite solid, powerful, especially my forehand, and also the other side of my game, which is variety and I can do many different things, you know, I can mix it up. Depending on the opponent, I can kind of play a flat, aggressive game as everybody would do, or I can try to totally mix it up with slices, especially on the grass, changing direction, slices, dropshots, some shots that are very, yeah, I would say different and personal.

So when all my game is working together and it's about calling the right shot, using the right situation, the right shot, and I commit and execute it well, yeah, I guess I have a good level.

Q. It's a big time of year for sport, not just tennis. And it's an Olympics year, as well. If you weren't a tennis player, what sport do you think you would be very good at?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Actually, I used to be a volleyball player. My mom used to be a professional volleyball player. I used to play volleyball till I was 12. I was very good at it, but volleyball, it's kind of too early, very young age. It's more like you turn professional teenager and it was quite boring for me because at 12 years old I was already 1 meter 75 taller than everyone else. It was quite boring for me so I switched to tennis.

I think -- what I could hear is I was very maybe better for tennis at the beginning, but I guess I have my mom's gene in there. Yeah, I really love volleyball, so maybe I would have done that sport.

Q. How about Monica Puig in the next round?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Obviously a very tough one. I mean, she has the type of game that she's on the grass, obviously she's another very powerful player. She's aggressive. She's probably having the momentum on her side. You know, she passed quallies and probably full of confidence.

I didn't see much of her matches here this week, but I obviously know her. We are same generation and played against each other in the past.

You know, it's a big tournament. Being both in the quarters, I guess we deserve it. We both playing well at the moment. It's gonna be a tough battle.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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