Mladenovic’s Marathon

After a 2 hours 59 minutes marathon with many momentum swings and even more unforced errors and untimely double faults Kristina managed to get past a stubborn opponent who neither could close on her service games nor would she go away in the 3^rd set.  Mladenovic on her part was overcome with lower back pain which affected her serve, more than anything else, to a point that they were of sub-junior level.  She showed tremendous character by hanging in tough to eke out a win with a 3-6, 6-3 and 9-7 victory over Jennifer Brady.

The match seemed nearly over in the very first set as Mladenovic’s bad back seemed to have an obvious affect on her serve and at certain points there was an ominous feeling that Kristina would retire shortly.  Brady’s serve on the other hand  was firing on all cylinders and she was causing major damage with it in the first set.  She lost only 6 points off her first serve in the first 2 sets and then couldn’t win a service game after the 3^rd game in the 3^rd set!  Aided by Kristina’s poor serve, Jennifer rushed to a 3-0 lead in the third set and then the match turned very weird where suddenly both players seemed to have mastered the art of losing their service games and not accepting and putting away the many gifts offered as short balls by the other.   Somehow up 8-7 in the 3^rd Mladenovic managed to hold onto to her serve and close it out.

Jennifer had 5 aces and put 53% of her first serves in and won 90% of those first serve points in the first set.  However, in the 3^rd set she had 2 aces, put in 53% of her first serves but won only 63% of those points.  Kristina on her part won 10 of her 12 forays to the net in the third set, whereas she approached the net only twice in the first and four times in the 2^nd set!  Over the course of the entire match Mladenovic had 45 winners and 48 unforced errors compared to 27 winners and 43 unforced errors, with 22 of those unforced coming in the 3^rd set, for Brady.

The match in itself was quite interesting but not of the highest quality.  There were some spectacular rallies followed by giveaways immediately thereafter.  Both played tentatively at important junctures and belted winners ever so often.  Mladenovic’s experiments with the drop shot were abysmal failures and Brady just would not recognize and close the short balls that she received from Kristina.  Kristina however was slightly better from the second set onward at putting away short balls with her forehand and also approaching the net every now and then.

Mladenovic is so good at not only approaching the net but also executing volleys that it makes one wonder why she doesn’t do it more often.  However, she does use her booming forehand as a weapon and to finish points.

Brady showed that she has an effective serve and ground shots.  She also showed her inability to handle short sliced ball, which could have been due to her lack of experience on red clay.   She may be a factor on the hard courts of America this summer.

Mladenovic has her work cut out against Sara Errani in the next round and she needs to heal that bad back quickly to stand a chance against that wily veteran on clay.