“I Gave it Everything” – Kristina Mladenovic on Defending French Open 2020 Title

Kristina Mladenovic and Timea Babos were once again crowned women’s doubles champion at the Roland Garros after a straight-sets victory against Alexa Guarachi and Desirae Krawczyk. The 2nd seed duo were the defending champion and now are back-to-back Grand Slam champion at French Open 2020. For Mledenovic it was an emotional victory as the French player got emotional after winning the final.

Coming to the match, Mladenovic and Babos won the match in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 7-5. The match score-wise was short but it went on for more than 90 minutes. The first set was straight forward for Mladenovic and Babos as they got a relatively easy 6-4 victory. The second set was topsy-turvy as Guarachi and Krawczyk looked for a comeback. The second set had multiple breaks of serve but in the Mledenovic looked calm as she hit the forehand winner to convert their 2nd match point and win the title.

“I rarely saw myself being that exhausted mentally and physically, especially on the Grand Slam final today, and [Babos] played a big part of our win today. I gave it everything the last two weeks during the rest of our matches,” Mladenovic said.

“Especially when you’re French and when you love as much as me competing in Roland Garros, and when this thing happened to you, like, two weeks before Roland Garros, I cannot tell you how bad my preparation was, even though we tried everything to be ready for [this tournament].”

Kristina Mladenovic won her third French Open doubles title

Mladenovic and Babos have been one of the most successful doubles partnership in recent years. Mledenovic and Babos won their 3rd French Open title in 5 years. And also completed a rare double of Australian Open and French Open victory. And the past few months have been tough Mledenovic.

Rolling back to the US Open 2020, Mledenovicwas was forced to withdraw from the Grand Slam and quarantine herself after her French countryman Benoit Paire tested positive for the coronavirus. Even after multiple negative tests, Mledenovic had to stay quarantined and miss a few tournaments before the French Open 2020. And so the French Open victory was an emotional affair for Mledenovic.

“But my body was not following. Of course, mentally it was tough. I had also a tough outcome in my first-round singles. I was on the edge. I wanted to be great on-court for my partner, because we deserved it after what happened to us in US Open. We couldn’t compete,” Kiki added.

“To lift the trophy here, like Timi said, it’s always special, but this time you cannot imagine like what relief and what pride it is to actually, even for me personally, to leave this tournament with such a reward. I still have to wake up and believe it’s actually true.”

Coming into the French Open, Mledenovic had no match practice since playing in the US Open in the opening week of September. But she didn’t look rusty and with her teammate, Babos looked in supreme form.

Benoit Paire couldn’t hide his excitement and thrill for Mladenovic and congratulated her on Twitter.

Mladenovic also leveled some records with the title victory. Mladenovic now has the joint second-most French Open doubles title among French Players.

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