As the top seed in the Kremlin Cup, some might expect Kristina Mladenovic to be gunning for a title. Instead, she is hoping to grab her first match win since August after what has been a steep learning curve for her.
At the start of 2017, the French world No.13 seemed destined to break into the world’s top 10. In February she won her maiden WTA title in St. Petersburg. Following on from that she reached three WTA finals within a two-month period. Including Premier events in Stuttgart and Madrid. At the French Open the 24-year-old broke new territory to reach the quarter-finals. Everything was positive for Mladenovic until the nightmare second half of the season occurred.
“My schedule until Wimbledon and US Open was fine, but I realized now that I made a mistake after US Open with too many tournaments on my schedule,” Mladenovic told reporters in Russia.
Mladenovic’s admission comes during a nine-match losing streak. Since defeating Germany’s Tatjana Maria in the first round of the Washington Open in July, she has failed to win a single set on the tour. A frustrating outcome for a player of Mladenovic’s calibre. Her worst defeat occurred at the Pan Pacific Open when she was crushed 6-0, 6-0, by Qiang Wang.
“I cannot go back, but I definitely learned from it and it was a great lesson for sure. I will do some things differently next year.”
Injury has paid its part in the lull. At the Wimbledon championships, she fell and stretched the right ligament in her knee. Forcing her to have a brief break from the tour and missing valuable training time. In hindsight, she maybe should have taken a longer break from the sport in order to fully recover.
“I had some issues after Wimbledon with my knee. I tore the inside ligament of my knee when I fell down in my second round match, and then I came back from the holidays and that problem was solved.” She explained.
“I had some issue because of compensation and I couldn’t handle the pain and I thought that I would keep playing like this, because it was not the right period to take a break, but it definitely was a wrong choice.”
Seeking to end her losing run in Moscow, Mladenovic will face world No.100 Aliaksandra Sasnovich in her first match on Wednesday.
Mladenvic’s tour results post-Wimbledon 2017
Washington – R2 (lost to Bianca Andreescu)
Toronto – R1 (lost to Barborya Strycova)
Cincinnatti – R1 (lost to Daria Gavrilova)
New Haven – R1 (lost to Timea Babos)
US Open – R1 (lost to Monica Niculescu)
Tokyo – R1 (lost to Jana Fett)
Tokyo (Pan paciffic Open) – R1 (lost to Qiang Wang)
Wuhan – R1 (lost to Katerina Sinikova
Beijing – R1 (lost to Ying-Ying Duan)
