By Mike McIntyre
To say that Kristina Mladenovic has been struggling with her singles game is an understatement. Since achieving a career high ranking of No. 10 in the world back in October of 2017, the 25 year old Frenchwoman has been having a tough time obtaining many victories. It was quite the surprise to many therefore that the World No. 67 took out recent Aussie Open champ and current No. 1 Naomi Osaka on Tuesday 6-3, 6-3 at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.
After the match, Mladenovic told the press that a new service motion is partially responsible for her victory and optimistic view moving forward.
"It's like more natural. I still think there's still lots of room for improvement, but I see positive signs. Talking with my team and the people with whom I practice, they say it's better with my toss, and maybe before you could more easily read my serve. Now the toss is a bit more the same for any kind of target. So I'm happy about it."
Things were looking bright back in 2017 at the French Open for Mladenovic when she made the second Grand Slam quarterfinal of her career. Later that summer however things took a drastic turn for the worse that saw her go on to lose an incredible 15 consecutive matches starting with a loss to then 17 year old Bianca Andreescu at the Citi Open in Washington, DC.
Photo: Mike McIntyre
At the time Mladenovic cited not being physically ready after playing through some knee issues that she likely should have taken some time to properly heal from. The inconsistencies in her singles game have persisted since then and she had gone 0-4 to start 2019 until her first round win in Dubai against wildcard Fatma Al-Nabhani who is 407th in the WTA rankings.
Photo: Jimmie48 Tennis Photography
In doubles of course, credit must be given as Mladenovic has established herself as an elite level player. She closed out 2018 by winning the WTA Tour Championships with partner Timea Babos and has made the finals of all four Grand Slams in doubles winning both the French Open in 2016 and the Australian Open in 2018. She also captured two majors in mixed doubles at Wimbledon in 2013 and the Australian Open in 2014.
In terms of her victory against Osaka, maybe Mladenovic was due for a big win, or perhaps Osaka has been distracted by the reaction to her recent split from WTA coach of the year Sascha Bajin. Either way it has got to be a huge confidence boost for a player who used to exude that sentiment in abundance. She'll next face Carla Suarez Navarro who holds a 3-1 career head-to-head advantage over Mladenovic. Their last meeting was at the 2018 US Open and was a close one with the Spaniard prevailing 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.
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