Kiki Mladenovic is one of the favorites to win Roland Garros this year but her high status is not why she was able to escape with a dramatic win today over Jennifer Brady 63 36 97.
Mladenovic was clearly not at her best, struggling with the pressure of high expectations and fine, persistent play by the American. Mladenovic was locked in a fierce struggle 3-3 in the third and then used a long argument on a line call against her to break the rhythm of the match. Brady was ready to serve and play but Kiki extended the conversation with the female chair umpire at the ball mark on the far sideline for close to five minutes!
The long delay flustered Brady who was then broken for 4-3 Kiki. But Kiki failed to capitalize. At 15-love Kiki double faulted and then eventually lost the game for 4-4.
Mladenovic then broke again but again blew her own service game and it was 5-5. Then 6-6. 7-7.
At 7-7 Mladenovic once again decided to argue a call of her long forehand which was deep by an inch. The chair umpire again jumped out of the chair, showed the mark and was lured into another lengthy conversation at the net with Kiki which lasted about three minutes. Once again the delay affected Brady who was broken.
This time Kiki was able to hold serve and finish the match for 9-7.
But it was clearly usage of pre-meditated stall tactics which won the match today for Mladenovic. Brady did not protest the “ridiculous” (adjective used by Lindsay Davenport) antics by Kiki and stood by passively on the court waiting for the discussions to conclude.
She was never the same player, clearly rattled and disrupted by the calculated breakages of action.
Mladenovic showed veteran craftiness and guile to register the win today which ranks with some of the other Grand Slam classic subterfuge plays of the past.
Like when Evonne Goolagong was losing 3-5 to Virginia Ruzici at Wimbledon quarterfinals and suffered an apparent ankle injury which provoked her husband to come down to the court to administer a shot to her foot. After a considerable delay, Goolagong got up and decided to play and won the match 7-5 6-3.
Or when Tim Mayotte was beating defending Wimbledon champion Boris Becker and Becker supposedly endured some kind of injury, stopped the match and actually verbally quit. But then decided to change his mind and after a delay, resumed play, came back and won the match.
There are probably a few hundred more of these anecdotes of players manufacturing creative reasons to stop and stall a match they are losing, to then reversing their fortunes after the bluff took its effect.
Winning on a bad day is the mark of a champion, so says one of the age old sports cliches. Mladenovic might not have played to her highest quality level of tennis vs Brady but she certainly showed Grand Slam champion caliber cleverness today. – Scoop Malinowski
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Scoop Malinowski · May 29, 2017 at 7:12 pm
Kiki actually is my pick to win the title. But she will obviously need to pick it up which this kind of win could trigger. I like Brady and she has been steadily showing her presence on the WTA circuit for the last year but she made a big mistake by being passive while Kiki worked her shenanigans. Brady needed to take charge and bark out something like, “Respect the call and let’s play.” Such a remark would have embarrassed and or angered Kiki, and it would have showed that Brady will not allow herself to be stepped on and treated like a stagehand while the drama queen diva plays her trickery.
Tommy · May 29, 2017 at 11:09 pm
Scoop, she is your pick to win the title?! She will probably be out by third round.
Doogie · May 30, 2017 at 4:48 am
Kiki had injury time out early in 1st set and later said she has back problems. I also thaught she has a shot to the final but with this injury?? Anway Errani and her serve is a walking bye for Kiki.
I know we wrote about her earlier this year BUT:
Anisimova is the big deal on the WTA tour. I watched her match against Nara – she was 6:3 4:2 30:0 up but lost it in the end. Does not matter his loss but what I saw from her:
JUST WOW!
Good serve, monster BH, fast hitting FH, moves well, nice volleys and she was even playing drop shots – at age 16!
U read all talk about her – this is just not a hype. Currently 260 in ranking – I predict her to win matches on WTA tour this year and at next year RG18 she is top50.
What a kid! Girl will make u happy for US tennis!
catherine · May 30, 2017 at 4:59 am
Doogie
I left a rather uncomplimentary comment about Anisimova lower down but I’ll take it back if what you say is true.
But 16 ? Let’s wait and see.
Doogie · May 30, 2017 at 5:42 am
Just read that at age 16 u are not allowed to play more than 12 tournaments. So we have to wait one more year for her massive breakthrou
Scoop Malinowski · May 30, 2017 at 9:11 am
Tommy yes she is and I will stick with Kiki. But she better raise her level and raise it fast.
Scoop Malinowski · May 30, 2017 at 9:14 am
First heard about Anisimova three years ago from Daniel Vacek who knew about her and we were watching her play singles. It was well known back then by the insiders she was the real deal and now the world is learning it. She could be the next 17 year old to win a GS if she keeps up this pace of improvement.
catherine · May 30, 2017 at 9:22 am
This is where an older player comes along and sends Anisimova back to school and her real life in tennis begins.
10isfan · May 30, 2017 at 2:03 pm
This was the fault of the ump. She shouldn't have engaged in a long conversation. Just make the call and return to her seat. Ridiculous they don't use Hawkeye on clay. It is already there. Why not show to the players so they can have closure and move on? I know the ball mark can be seen on clay, but sometimes the ump doesn't know which mark to look at.
catherine · May 30, 2017 at 2:14 pm
Simona through quickly. I expect her to win.
Scoop Malinowski · May 30, 2017 at 4:34 pm
10isfan; I am pretty sure that rookie chair umpire who lost control of the Kiki match will be corrected by ITF officials and such an error will never happen again. In her defense, the players wield a lot of power today and they call the shots. Look at Verdasco yesterday, he stopped the match with Zverev when they could have played at least another hour. The big players have the power and Kiki is a big player in France and she wielded that power to her advantage yesterday.
Scoop Malinowski · May 30, 2017 at 4:35 pm
Halep ankle apparently is perfect. I might have to change my pick to Halep instead of Kiki 🙂
catherine · May 30, 2017 at 7:01 pm
Yes – I think Simona did a big psychological thing about her ankle – wasn’t hurt that bad and the only question is now can she win without OCC 🙂
(The only player who could cause Simona to have unpleasant flashbacks of course isn’t at RG courtesy of FTF)
catherine · May 30, 2017 at 7:09 pm
Oh and if Simona wins RG without OCC then I’d like to see her avoid it in future.
catherine · May 30, 2017 at 7:18 pm
More on ankles – seems a winning injury – Bouchard and Kasatkina both through with wobbly joints.
Andrew Miller · May 30, 2017 at 8:19 pm
Winning on a bad day IS mark of champ. It’s true. Being able to gut it out.
I like Mladenovic. That said, seeds and hot players are flailing.
Konta lost in three. There goes my surprise finalist.
Glad to see Cirstea, Halep, Sevastova pull through. Svitolina followed up her tournament victory also with a win in round one. Bouchard escapes to round two also.
catherine · May 31, 2017 at 3:00 am
I don’t mean Simona was playing up her injury – she was just nervous about it and cautious – if she had seriously torn ligaments in her ankle, like footballers get, she wouldn’t have been able to walk. As soon as I saw she was practising last Thursday it was obvious she was ok.
Andrew – no way Konta would’ve been a finalist at RG. Hasn’t got the game for the surface.
catherine · May 31, 2017 at 9:42 am
RG is apparently playing fastish at present. Don’t know if this will suit Simona or not.
Maybe she can try some s/v to cut down on the running 🙂