Emmanuel LANGELLIER, Media365: published on Thursday January 23, 2025 at 6:32 p.m.
French player Kristina Mladenovic was accused by an opponent of threatening her during a doubles match at the Australian Open.
Winner of 6 Grand Slam tournaments in women's doubles, Kristina Mladenovic will not add a 7th trophy to her collection at the end of the 2025 Australian Open. In the running to win a 3rd crown in Melbourne, after 2018 and 2020 (with Timea Babos), the Frenchwoman, associated with the Chinese Shuai Zhang with whom she had reached the final of the last US Open, was stopped in quarter-finals, Wednesday. Eliminated by the number 1 seeded pair of Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend (6-1, 7-5), the northern player, eliminated in the 2nd round of singles qualifying, had previously taken out the pair Lyudmyla Kichenok-Hao-Ching Chan (7-6, 6-2). This meeting ended in a somewhat stormy manner on Monday.
-Kichenok: “I received very direct threats from my opponent during the match”
After the match point, Lyudmyla Kichenok shook Chan's hand at the net but deliberately ignored Mladenovic's. A behavior that got people talking. The Ukrainian then explained it through a story on her Instagram account. She then accused the Frenchwoman of having threatened her during the match. “I have been publicly accused of unsporting behavior and I would like to explain myself. I received very direct threats from my opponent during the match after unintentionally hitting her with a ball, she explained, referring to a point in the match. The response I received to my numerous apologies was: “You be careful next time.” I do not consider it appropriate to have a sign of respect, such as shaking hands at the end of the match, towards people who use verbal threats. Period. »
Mladenovic: “It really pissed me off”
At the end of the match, Kristina Mladenovic criticized the behavior of her Ukrainian opponent. “We started slowly, but I think… If you want my honest opinion, I think the opposing team woke me up a little because they showed unsportsmanlike behavior during my service. It really pissed me off,” said the 31-year-old Frenchwoman who lost track of her career in singles (she is 215th in the world) but is ranked 29th in doubles after being number 1 in 2019 (29 titles in total). , 1 in singles).
