|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ROLAND GARROSJune 4, 2017Kristina MladenovicParis, France K. MLADENOVIC/G. Muguruza 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 THE MODERATOR: Questions in English, please. Q. Your first round was dramatic. Next round was epic. How would you describe this one? KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Is that a game (smiling)? I don't know. Just great. I think it's great to win such an important match and to reach the quarterfinal for first time here in Paris for me. Q. I know you have a lot of self-confidence and belief, but have you surprised yourself at all with how well you've backed up each win and not allowed the emotions to take over? KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Yeah. As I said always in my previous press conference, every single day it's a new challenge. Yeah, I always do believe in myself. I always do believe I'm strong enough mentally to, you know, at least give my best tennis out there and have no regrets and not, go out from the court and say, Okay, I couldn't handle at all those atmosphere, those nerves, or I didn't even play my tennis, and then you regret it and you feel kind of weak. Yeah, I believe in myself that I'm going to give myself out there, and then the outcomes, the results, doesn't always depend of me. But, yeah, it's been great. It's been every single day a huge new challenge, different circumstances, different opponents, different scoreboard. Yeah, I just love that. You know, it's a game overall, and it's nice, you know, to fight for those momentums and eventually wins. Q. Top French player against the defending champion. I mean, were you surprised that the match was not on Chatrier? That it was on Lenglen? Talk about the crowd and everything. They are kind of your sixth man here backing you up at this tournament. KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Well, I was not really surprised, because, you know, we have Chatrier, it's kind of the main court, center court, but Lenglen is like the second -- like it's a center court, as well. Rafa played there, and Novak, like, you know, they also played on that court. I don't know. You gotta kind of give the crowd, because some people are also, you know, buying tickets there and you cannot always put all the best matches on center court. So that's the organization. I mean, it's also nice to see such a full court and people enjoying it. Yeah, the crowd, I mean, you know, I'm French. I'm playing at home. Obviously they are excited. The atmosphere was just, yeah, amazing, I thought, which is not easy to handle for both of us. I mean, you know, it's lots of pressure, like it's an amazing atmosphere. You know, even for me, even if I had like a thousand people screaming and cheering up for me, it's not easy to control the nerves and the pressure and everything, you know. I could also hear all those exactly same thousand of people like being so down when I would double fault. So it's not easy to concentrate and keep, you know, the confidence up and to keep it up. But, you know, it's part of the sport. I mean, it's amazing to play in such a great stage with such an atmosphere, because, you know, at the end of the day, from my opinion, it's sport, it's a show, you know. Like we try to show our best tennis, to entertain people, to show out there some fight, some emotion, you know. And I think that's how it should be. Kind of beauty of a great match like that. Q. Garbiñe was pretty upset about the crowd afterwards and her coach, as well. Her coached called it pathetic and no class for the crowd, just how they were, I guess, maybe too much for you or too anti-her, I don't know exactly which moments. Did you think they crossed the line at all during the match? KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Honestly, the coincidence is I lost a final in Stuttgart against Laura Siegemund, a German player, and I thought the crowd was, like, extremely tough there. But, you know, I didn't make any comments, because from my opinion, like I just said before, it's sport. I don't know if I have a different culture of sport. You know, team sports and everything. I just think it's normal that it's such an amazing atmosphere. I think it's great for sport. I just said before, you know, that wasn't easy for me either there, because lots of noise. I don't think that they crossed the line. I mean, I noticed once -- and I think it was bad -- when they kind of screamed between her first and second serve, but that's because they thought it's a double fault because the first serve was a let or something. But that's the only thing that happened. Otherwise, they were quite fair. I mean, they were also applauding her great shots. Nothing too much. They were, like, entertaining at the change of ends, doing the Ola and stuff. Honestly, no, I don't think it was unsportsmanship or unfair or anything. Especially that I, myself, experienced something in Germany where it was, like, way, like, more like fired up and -- but even back then I didn't, like, criticize the crowd being unfair or anything, because it's also normal to, like, to see the crowd picking out their favorite. You know, like, people want to enjoy it. I don't think they were bad at all. I don't think so. Q. Obviously in your next match you've got Timea Bacsinszky. You had a very tough match in Fed Cup earlier this year. You have never played her on clay. Can you just go over that matchup, because you both have quite a lot of variety in your game. What do you make of that? KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Yeah, I think it's gonna be a very interesting and exciting match, especially what you said, lots of variety in both of our games. She's a great player. She always has had a great success in Paris playing well. You know, I didn't yet think about what I'm going to do exactly, because I'm still, you know, in my today's day, enjoying this win, and I will have time to prepare. But, yeah, I'm not sure how many times we played against each other, but Fed Cup was the last one, and that was such a great fight, entertaining and long battle. So I have no doubt it's going to be another new one in two days. Q. You have had a very successful week at Roland Garros with everyone cheering you on. What has pleased you most about the way that you have played here this week so far? KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Yeah, I'm very satisfied so far with the outcome, with the results. But I think level-wise I think I still have lots of things to improve. I don't think I played my best tennis yet, especially on some aspect of my game. Actually, probably my weapons that didn't work that good yet, especially with the serve I'm struggling big time, actually, lately. You know, I'm fighting my way to all these difficulties, and trying to stay positive, to always work on trying to, you know, correct them, improve them, give myself a chance to keep going and find a solution every day to play with the possibilities I have of that day. Yeah, that's the momentum so far, and hopefully I can just keep on playing better and better. Q. You're in the quarterfinals and there will be another French woman in the quarterfinals also, because there's a match tomorrow between Garcia and Cornet. There has been some bad blood within the French Fed Cup team. Have you reached out to her or apologized for the comments or anything and the things that have upset people on both sides? KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: What's the question? Q. Have you reached out to Caroline? KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Have I spoke to her? Q. Have you talked to her? KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: No, I didn't speak to her, no. And? So that's the question? Q. Yeah, just... KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: No, I didn't see her. I didn't speak to her. THE MODERATOR: Questions in French. Q. We know that you like team sports, too. Is your ultimate goal to turn the center court into a soccer pitch? Because the atmosphere was amazing. KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: I don't know. In the French Open I have always had great atmospheres in the past. My match against Bouchard, against Na Li, my previous rounds, the atmosphere was truly spectacular. But I think today was very new, because there were almost no free seats at all on Lenglen. I know when she was serving to the left or wherever it was, it was a bit difficult to focus because sometimes the ball would get lost in all of these heads. It was the first time that I played in an absolutely 100% full Suzanne Lenglen. Apart from that, it's awesome. It's fantastic to witness such an atmosphere and I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it. So I was out there, and it wasn't easy, because you're not really in the habit on the ordinary matches in your circuit, the audience is either split down more evenly. You have your own fans or you have an audience against you. I talked about Stuttgart where I played against Kerber who is a huge star over there. Siegemund. I don't often have the opportunity to have so many people rooting for me. This kind of almost Fed Cup or team sport atmosphere. Then a number of people told me that I have an attitude or a behavior that means that perhaps the audience kind of lines up behind me. But I really enjoy being there, and I have said this before. I love tennis. It's my sport, because I want to give people back what they give me. And when they pay for a ticket, they want to see a good show. Q. You beat Timea in the Fed Cup in her home. She's not going to come over here and beat you. KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: What? Q. You beat Timea Bacsinszky. KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: No, I didn't. I lost. Oh, that's why I was disturbed by your question. Q. So you could get revenge there, could you? KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Yes, well -- no, I don't see things like that. It's not, you know, because it's Timea that I must get my revenge. That's not my mindset. I'm going to go into this match, it's a Grand Slam quarterfinals here in Roland Garros. The good thing is we both know how to play tennis. We have played one against another. We know each other. I'm not sure that we have ever played on clay together, but that's not my mindset. It will be a negative approach. I don't prepare my matches out of revenge. It's just that I have an attitude, a personality, a code of conduct. I want to go out there and win every match. But it's going to be a very interesting match, because as I was saying, she has a very varied game. And she's a fighter. So it's going to be a big match, whatever happens. Q. Let me discuss the public again. You said it was complicated for both, but you leveraged it a lot. At the end, when you ask them to turn up the volume, were you surprised to see how much it could destabilize your opponent? And if you reach the semifinals, are you going to leverage that, too? Because it might take you very far. KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Honestly, I don't think I exaggerated. I think I just communicated with them two, three times. Like I said, I just do that, because that's what I'm like. It can be bad for me, too. Because I'm in the lead, maybe I'd like a bit of peace and quiet to remain focused and not get overexcited. It's not easy for me, either, because with that attitude, I'm putting a whole lot of pressure on myself. Because everyone is there behind me. It's part of my attitude. I didn't exaggerate. I think I didn't find her particularly destabilized or disturbed on easy faults or double faults. I don't think the atmosphere caused much of that. And I consider that when there is a fine event with a great audience it's a good thing. I don't really see what I can say more about that. Of course, it's a two-sided thing. It's a huge pleasure and privilege to have the audience behind you. But I also need to fight, and from the nerves point of view, it's tough, too. Because you need to be 150% with all these thousands of people who are breathing down your neck, so to speak. Q. I checked this time. There are no longer any Grand Slam winners still in the game. So do you think things are still very much open? Does that change your approach to the rest of the tournament? KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: No, absolutely not. They say, okay, everything's very open, but what I take away from the way I have played tennis, I think that the previous match compared to today's match, I needed to draw much more on my resources, which goes to show that everyone plays really well. We just have girls here in quarterfinals because they play great tennis, and each victory needs to be fought for. Q. For the representation of your matches, you really have a taste for discipline and precision, don't you? Is it true that you're so prepared about your opponent sometimes you have these little cheat sheets with their technical characteristics and their past performance? KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Well, yes. I don't have a coach. I coach myself, so I prepare my matches with myself. And that means that everything that a coach does, I do myself. I prepare my matches. I follow my opponents' careers. I watch their games. I take notes. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|