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ROLAND GARROS

May 26, 2019

Kristina Mladenovic

Paris, France

K. MLADENOVIC/F. Ferro

6-3, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Questions in French.

Q. 6-3, 4-2, what happened? You sort of went out of the match and then you finished beautifully. But it was hotter at the end than at the beginning.
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: No, I think that Fiona had a very good play. At no point in time she gave up, and she played her chance all the way till the end.

It's always difficult to start the tournament. You never play your best match at the very beginning, the first round.

I'm very satisfied that I won today. I had good moments. There are other points I would like to improve, and there is a lot of game strategy that I have to implement for the next rounds. I have to work on that right from my next practices.

But the main task was to win the match today. It was really difficult. Fiona is young, full of talent. She had nothing to lose, and I had all the pressure on my shoulders today.

And to fully answer your question, she has even raised her level of play in the second set that's enabled her to come back and even serve for the set. But I'm satisfied that I was able to be solid and to finish the second set very well.

Q. Is it not better to start the tournament and be solid in the most important moments, to have a not-so-easy match rather than a too-easy match?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Well, a victory is a victory. You just take whatever comes up.

But it's true that it keeps us alert, to have the fact of having difficult situations where you save break points and you have to play everything physically, mentally, to stay positive, to find the right resources when you're back against the wall and facing a difficult situation.

So indeed it's positive, and it gives food for thought versus when everything is going perfectly fine. Of course it's fantastic, but a match like today is very positive. There are a lot of lessons to learn in good and not-so-good moments to identify the room for improvement.

In the end, a victory is always positive, whatever happens.

Q. So it's been several years you have been playing Roland Garros, and it's a specific tournament for French players, especially due to the pressure. How do you manage that? Because over the years you made mistakes you no longer make. What is good for you? To be in a bubble, do your routine? What is better for you?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: I don't want to attract bad luck, but I have never had any problems, in management or mistakes with respect to my previous Roland Garros tournaments. It's always been a great pleasure. I always took it in the best way possible.

That means it's just a trait of my character. It depends on how I take pressure or adrenaline or tension which can exist because I'm a French player and I'm playing Roland Garros.

But I try to turn that into something very positive, joyful, and to keep smiling and see that as a big challenge, where I have to fight with the difficulty of trying to overcome that challenge.

And I don't remember that for any match since, I don't know how many Roland Garros tournaments I have played, maybe 10, but I don't remember -- well, sometimes there is an opponent which is stronger than you and deserves winning. But at no point in time I felt I could not play my tennis due to this pressure or something else.

So for me it's very natural. I don't have any routine. I don't want to be in a bubble. I just try to be myself. I try to focus, to be concentrated, to be on the court, and to focus on the sports part and I'm always happy to be on the court.

Q. Your next opponent is Petra Martic. I think you had a very difficult match last time you played. What do you think about that?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: When I saw the draw, it's a very difficult draw for the second round. As I was saying, maybe if she's not well known from the general public, but she's a very dangerous player on the clay. She has a very high wins over losses.

And we played a WTA event and we played three hours. She won 7-6 and won the tournament. And then she did a very good tournament in Madrid, and she was, during the second week in Roland for many years, every year maybe. She's a very tough opponent.

I think that she's the favorite for our match, because she's very strong on clay. But it's true that we had a benchmark match in Istanbul not so long ago. So I will see that match again to be better prepared to go further.

Q. Does the fact of playing Fiona, which has a similar game with very hard forehand, is that a good way for preparing that match?
KRISTINA MLADENOVIC: Yes, indeed. I don't want to say that it's similar, but today I didn't play an Asian left-handed player playing flat balls or another extreme. So there are similarities between how Fiona plays and how Petra plays.

Fiona is moving well on the clay court. She's sliding, she has a very good lifted forehand, and there are similarities with the next match, indeed.

But as I said before, the opponent, my next opponent is more solid. Her ranking speaks for itself and her previous results, so I'll have to raise my game.

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