	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

ROLAND GARROS

May 29, 2017

Kristina Mladenovic

Paris, France

K. MLADENOVIC/J. Brady

3-6, 6-3, 9-7

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. How is your back? How were you feeling during the match?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Back feels so-so. Unlucky thing happened to me yesterday. I did a wrong movement and I blocked my back. Random thing. I think it happened to everybody, maybe even you. You can't imagine the feeling. I stopped straightaway my practice, and my physio worked on it, they straightaway unblocked my back.

But on a moment, I could feel, like, the muscle get super tight when you do a wrong movement. I didn't do anything more yesterday. We worked a lot on soft tissue, on my muscles. It was the spine, the muscles was very tight, and I had spasm.

But, you know, this morning was better. We did lots of hours and hours of trying to release that, because there is nothing going on with my bones and stuff, but muscle, especially very tight. And this morning was way better, but it was really bad still for being, like, at the top level of playing. And especially on the serve and everything. I think you could see I was not serving fast on my serve.

But, yeah, I took some medications, as well, when I went out at 3-Love, and the doctor said to give it a try and see. And I don't know. It's such a long story. I played out there for three hours later, and I was just trying to find a way. Was nothing too dangerous, but, you know, when you block your back, everything is super tight and you cannot really rotate and hit the serve normally. You know, I just dig in there. I really don't know how I managed that.

But what they are saying is that it's nothing serious, and it happened to me in the past, and hopefully, like, in the next 48 hours should be fine, hopefully.

Q. In a situation like that, what do you say to yourself in order to get through this kind of match? Like do you choose a certain tactic, or do you encourage yourself? What do you actually think when something like this happens?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: I know I have lots of courage, but I have to say mentally it was extremely difficult for me, because I did such a great preparation and sort of thing to happen to me just the day before, like, it's super negative. You know, I just tried to fight.

When you are out there on the center court in front of your home crowd and playing a Grand Slam and you don't feel 100% and even it's very bad, and, like, thousand of people can see that I'm pushing the ball and I'm not me, I just try to fight and find a solution.

I served all the match like 140, and I was just trying tactically to find a way just to give myself an opportunity to stay in there and try to win somehow and give myself an opportunity maybe to come back, like, in two days and feeling nothing.

Q. Without your sort of main weapons available to you, what were you able to find, especially as that match got deep into a third set? What were the sort of solutions or patterns or weaknesses in her that you were able to find to get you across the finish line?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: I think she has a great serve, great forehand, heavy shots, great for clay. I couldn't serve normally, but I tried tactically, I could feel that she was not confident on my serve. She was still staying very far behind, and I was serving slow. Then I was just trying to work out the points, playing a little bit more on her backhand, trying to be patient, trying to play some spin balls.

On forehand/backhand, it wasn't that bad. Depended of the position and the pace of her ball. I just hang in there, really. It's a long match. I was down a set. I was down 3-Love in the third. I really don't know how I did that. I just tried and find and eventually I got through.

Q. You are close friends with Belinda Bencic. How comes it, and how do you stay in touch during her months and weeks of recovery?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Yeah, she's not at her best right now, and we are, you know, very good friends, best friends. It's every day we exchange via WhatsApp whatever happens or she's doing. Right now she's in Monaco in her place, and she's thinking to come maybe the next weekend. For her it's tough for her to come here and see tennis of course where she would like to be. Yeah, she probably come and visit me later.

Q. You said you have had this problem before with your back. So do you feel like if this is something that you can put behind you and you can still go far in this tournament?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: You know, like, comparing the situation yesterday and today I think was already a big improvement. As I said, it happened to me in the past. I think maybe some, like, some of you had this before, like to block your back. It's nothing dangerous and bad, and it can release in couple hours, couple days. It happened to me like that couple years ago in Cincinnati. I had an experience like that. The next two days, it was totally gone. I'm lucky I have good team and good specialists around me that will probably do a great job.

And I'm, yeah, I'm positive about my conditioning on Wednesday. Just extremely happy to give myself a chance to be still in the tournament, and I'm sure I will come back better.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. Now, would you say that this pain was more physical or psychological? Because you were looking at yourself in this state. It was so hard for you during your first round that you should have managed more easily. Was it a psychological pain or physical pain that you suffered more from?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: It's more physical. I wasn't there 100%, it was hurting. If it were not Roland, I wouldn't have walked into the courts today. That's to tell you how bad this was. I mean, my physical condition was so poor. Three games, I wasn't playing these three games, and then I walked out, I did what I had to do.

The doctor gave me anti-inflammatories, and then he said, We'll see how it goes. If it's too bad we'll stop. So I tried a set. I thought, we'll see. We will see what happens during the beginning of the second one.

I was lucky to be up for a while. It gave me more courage to get into the match. And tactically, I thought, what can I do to settle into the match? It was a fight, a fight. I had to find the right things to just forget about the pain and win today.

Q. Now, during the third set when it was 3-Love, what were you thinking about? What about your mindset?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: I thought I was out of this tournament. Well, frankly, when I lost the first one, I thought, oh, that's going to be so hard. And then I was up during the second set. Gave me a bit more mental strength. I thought, I'm going to fight for this one. We'll see what's going to happen during the third set. Then when it was 2-Love, it was a bad game, one of the very last points, 1-0, I was down 3-0, and I wasn't feeling good at all.

I don't know. It's point after point. I was fighting, struggling, fighting. I thought, it's just a break. And then after this, it was like a small marathon until the end of the match.

Q. When your back was blocked, I suppose it's a wall that collapses, because you had prepared so much and all that. So that's my first question. My first question is, what were you thinking about? And second question is, how did you manage to get mentally prepared to say, Okay, this is the center court, Roland Garros, this is my favorite tournament? How can I be ready for that with my new status and I can't play my best tennis? How did you accept this, mentally speaking?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Well, yesterday was so hard. It happened at the end of the morning. I was with my team, and, well, I know my body quite well. I know it was close to critical, very critical. It's not serious. It's not serious or dangerous, but it's so bothering. At that moment it was bothering me so much.

And morally, to tell you the truth, it was so difficult. I was feeling good, I can play tennis well. My preparation was really good. And then it's like bad luck. It can happen to anybody at any moment.

There's no special reason. Nothing special. It's not my practice, not my work, I didn't do the right movement, and it happened to me and that's it. I was morally in a trough, at the lowest level. I thought, what am I going to do tomorrow?

And just before the match started, honestly, I think people saw that, when the match started 3-0, I was doubting so much, I discussed this with my team, and the instructions were try not to show things or emotions as much as you can.

I don't know what you saw. My serves were not that good. Sometimes I was showing that it was itching, it was showing on my face. I didn't want to show this, not to her. I wanted to fight with the weapons I could find at hand.

And my team tried to be positive with me, and they said, Try and find a solution to win today so that you're back on Wednesday, because Wednesday it will be over.

Q. You're still very moved now. Is it because it was a long day? Is it because you're worried for what's going to come next? Or is it because you're frustrated? It's not fair it's happening to you now?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Well, c'est la vie. It's the way it is. It's life. Of course, I was very frustrated and disappointed yesterday. And now, I don't know. I'm shaken, because emotionally it was so big to manage my emotions yesterday, was so disappointed. And even during the match I was going to the locker rooms. I asked the doctor, and he said, No. And I said, What, no? What do you mean? I was back again. I lost the first set, and then all the things that happened during the match. And then I was there at the right moment. I was fighting. And I thought, let's try and win the match, and then we'll see. We'll see what happens next.

Honestly, I was not -- I'm not worried for Wednesday. We have plenty of time before Wednesday.

I see how things have changed from yesterday to today. My match was a long match today, a high-level match. Even though of course it's not my best level.

However, I have succeeded. I won the first round. Emotionally it was so hard. It was a three-hour match, you know. Given the ambition that I have, it was difficult for me to start off this way on center court, but I'm so happy to have won the match.

Q. Sometimes when people have too much stress they have muscles that are tight. The two are connected. Is it pure chance, according to you today, because it was the day before Roland, or is it just that there is a major event afterwards that you suffered from your muscles?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Well, possibly. That's possible. Who knows? I didn't feel I was tense myself or anything else. But it's possible. It's true. It can happen due to pressure or tension. But it's all sorts of things; coincidences, the wrong movement. And I have no special explanation, no precise explanations to tell you why this happened to me.

But it happened. It's life. I have to manage and deal with it. I'm just very proud to have fared well. I don't know how I did that. And now, I don't want to be too long on that. Now I think I want to focus on myself, my body, the care I need, and focus on myself for the rest of the tournament.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297