Beaten this Wednesday by Varvara Gracheva when she had four match points, Kristina Mladenovic appeared very marked by this setback and especially by the health context that surrounded her participation in the US Open. For the Frenchwoman, the health protocol to which she is the subject is “a nightmare”.
Kristina Mladenovic had a very difficult second round in New York. Faced with Varvara Gracheva, 20 years old and 102nd in the world, the Frenchwoman, 44th in the world, raced well in the lead before physically collapsing and sinking. She was leading 6-1, 5-1 and had four match points: she finally gave up the second set in a tie break and lost the third on a “bicycle wheel” (1-6, 7-6 [2], 6-0). The Habs were in tears when they debriefed their loss to the press. “I just want to thank the USTA for this unreal experience,” she said.
“I am completely at the end of the line”
“I was playing really well, but I couldn’t finish the match. I was one step away. She started to come back and little by little, I collapsed, I have no other word . I’m exhausted. I’ve never been in such a state. I’m completely exhausted, “she said. Because she rubbed shoulders with Benoît Paire, who tested positive for Covid-19 before the tournament, Kristina Mladenovic was the subject (like Grégoire Barrère, Richard Gasquet, Adrian Mannarino and Edouard Roger-Vasselin) of an extremely strict health protocol. She is notably watched by a bodyguard and is not free to do what she wants.
The Frenchwoman ensures that she does not want this special treatment “to be an excuse” for her defeat. “It is not the fault of the USTA that I did not convert my 4 match points. We must not be wrong,” she insists. But his grievances are numerous.
“If I had known, I would never have set foot in this tournament”
“It’s a nightmare, what we live there. I have only one desire, it is to find my freedom. We must fight to have our freedom. I would so much like to say full of things about what is happening here. It is absolutely abominable, how they treat us “, attack Kristina Mladenovic.
For the tenniswoman, her collapse in the third set is linked to these difficult living conditions: “In the third set, what I feel is distress, really. Even to take a step to the right, you have to ask permission . We don’t have freedom of movement, identity, anything. I have the impression that we are prisoners, criminals. “
Finally, Kristina Mladenovic assures him: “If I had known that playing 40 minutes at cards, with a mask, with a player (Benoît Paire) who tested positive, but ultimately negative, would have entailed these consequences, I wouldn’t never would have set foot in this tournament. “
