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MUTUA MADRID OPEN

May 10, 2017

Kristina Mladenovic

Madrid, Spain

K. MLADENOVIC/O. Dodin

6-2, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Made quick work of it today. Describe how it felt from your perspective.
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Yeah, well, obviously that was a great match for me. I think I did a great job out there with reading all of her shots pretty much. You know, I prepared this match really well. I stayed up late last night to watch her play.

She has great qualities. She's striking the ball very hard. It's not easy. But I thought I returned really well today because she's serving big. I put her under some pressure, so her first-serve percentage was quite low. I could feel she was disturbed that I could read her first serves.

Especially my serve, I think I got into the right rhythm. I was mixing it up quite well, so she couldn't read my serve.

Yeah, that's kind of the rÃ©sumÃ© of the match. It was very important to be ready on the first couple shots because that's her master game. I knew if I managed to be in a rally or just to make her move, kind of absorb her big shots, I'll be the winner out there, not need anything to do.

I'm pleased with the way I played.

Q. If I'm not mistaken, this is your first quarterfinals on clay. Did you expect that before coming to Madrid?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: I think you're correct (smiling).

You know, I'm having a great season so far. I put high expectations on myself since always. I'm just glad it's paying off, it's working. I don't take anything for granted. I'm working, you know, every single day for that. I'm prepare every single match as important.

Yeah, I'm just very happy with the way it's going. I just want to keep improving.

Q. You've been critical of Oceane's decision to skip the Fed Cup. Was there any tension between you two on the court because of the comments?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: No, I always say out loud what I think. No, as I said in my interview before the match, on my side there's absolutely no tension. I mean, you know, I just speak out what I think.

I still think this. But I think this girl is playing great tennis. She has a huge qualities. She's young. I think if she's working in the right direction, she can play really well. I mean, she proved it this week. She beat such a great players.

You know, on the court I didn't feel any tension. I'm there to focus on myself, to win my matches, no matter who is on the other side of the net. I'm just very happy to get there, be in the quarters.

I'm sure there wasn't anything negative out there on the court. We both played well, had a great attitude. Overall she's having a great attitude on the court, even if I'm not talking to her a lot.

The Fed Cup topic is something else. Hopefully one day she will be on the other side. I mean, the girls that understand this spirit, hopefully she can see good things about it.

Q. Two years ago you had no coach with good results. This year again you have no coach and you're having your best season so far. How would you explain that?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: I don't know what to answer to this question anymore. I've been asked this couple times.

Honestly, I don't know. Let's just say that I'm the best coach for myself so far. I don't know. That's it.

Q. After Genie Bouchard's win against Maria Sharapova, Genie said she received a lot of support from players in the locker room, texts. As someone who recently played Sharapova in Stuttgart, did you receive support in the locker room and did you at all support Genie in her match against Maria?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: I did receive a lot of messages before my match against Maria in Stuttgart and also afterwards. In Stuttgart, it was semifinals, the locker room was quite empty, so I didn't speak to anyone.

Here, of course I watched their match. I was finishing mine. I saw the last couple games on TV. I mean, this year, I'm in the beautiful locker room upstairs, in the top 16, Genie's not. I didn't see her. No, I didn't, no.

Q. What do you think has been the key for the improvement from previous years for you?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: It's kind of everything little bit. You know, I always said I had kind of a variety game, never easy to handle all the shots I'm able to produce, to put it in one direction, not to use it properly against. Each take is different opponent. The consistency overall. Just the physical part, I think it's been improving.

But there's nothing that has changed that much. It's just I've been working in the right direction for a couple years now. I kind of feel, you know, that the puzzle is getting adjust. Yeah, just everything little bit.

Maybe the most significant improvement was my fitness condition, the physical aspect of my game. Tennis-wise, technically I always had shots. You can improve every single day with the precision, with the pace. That's things I'm working on. Especially that I have different shots, as well, in my game. I try to work on it every single day. I'm also very into tactics. That's my philosophy of my game. I try to have, like, my focus on improvement, to have different kind of games. When one game is not working, I'm trying a Plan B, a Plan C. Depending on the opponents, as well.

That wasn't easy in the past because maybe I would lost track. But, yeah, that's the way I'm working.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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