We can sometimes speak of an encouraging defeat, but in this case it is above all infuriating. Still looking for a first victory in singles this season, Kristina Mladenovic (98th) had inherited a difficult draw in the first round of the Open 6eme Sens de Lyon, in the person of the Chinese Shuai Zhang, seeded n°8 and 64th worldwide. Difficult, but not impossible. Because in his good times, and there have been, Mladenovic has regained his superb. As in her heyday, when she was tenth in the world, she was able to score quick and rhythmic points that put her opponent well away from the ball.
Unfortunately, it also proved to be far too irregular. Especially in service (19 double faults, 36% of first serves). The service was really the black point of this match. From the start, it stuck. Thus, when she had just made the break thanks to a solid game, she conceded her face-off with three double faults at the start of the first set. And it was with a double fault that she wasted her second first-inning ball. Under these conditions, even with the best will, it’s hard to do better than hang on. She thus led 4-2 in the second set before being joined again. She had two new set points, but could not convert them. And behind, Zhang broke to take the advantage and finish on his serve on his first match point.
“It’s a shame to give him all these gifts in the service. Without going into details, I had some physical glitches that meant that I had to change some technical elements in the service and it’s not easy to put that in place in a match. But it’s frustrating because I felt that in the rest of the game I was on his level. But tennis plays on details, important points that I did not know how to win.confided the Frenchwoman after the match.
