 Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Sep 2008 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Sep 2008 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Sep 2008 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Sep 2008 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Sep 2008 |  Photographer: Susan Mullane
Date: 03 Sep 2008 |
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| 03 Sep 2008 - USTA National Tennis Center, Flushing, New York, USA - Eleanor Preston |  Related Audio |
| Mladenovic hangs on for Holland win |
 An Interview with Kristina Mladenovic (MP3 format)
An Interview with Henri Kontinen (MP3 format)
 
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France’s Kristina Mladenovic won one of the most keenly contested matches in the US Open Juniors on Wednesday when she beat Australian Isabella Holland 61 67 64 to move through to the third round. Mladenovic survived a second set fightback from Holland and a host of physical problems in the third set to win and set up a meeting with seventh seed Kurumi Nara of Japan.
“This match was very tough for me. It wasn’t so much at the beginning because it was 61 4-1 for me but then I started to play not very well and she started to play very good,” explained Mladenovic. “Everything happened so fast. I missed some shots and we have some tough points and she came back. She had a lot of support there. I was feeling very bad physically, it was very bad and I had a headache and I wanted to vomit. I won that third set just because I wanted to win it so much. The tennis wasn’t there. I just wanted it.”
Mladenovic was clearly struggling with her health at the end of the match against Holland but said she expected to be fully recovered for what could be another difficult encounter with Nara. “I stayed strong because I’m like that. I don’t want to let someone win because I’m not feeling very good. I will do everything I can to win,” said Mladenovic. “Everything was perfect and some things happen to change the match but I’m very proud to win this match. I did my best and I tried everything possible because I don’t like to lose. Physically I feel good now because the problems like I had are not like having cramps or something. My tennis is there. There is no reason why I won’t play good in my next match. Today was tough but we don’t just practice for one match, we practice to play lots of matches.”
Mladenovic and Nara were joined in the third round by Katarzyna Piter of Poland, Belgian Tamaryn Hendler and Americans Gail Brodsky and Coco Vandeweghe. Two more home players, doubles partners Asia Muhammad and Melanie Oudin, are due to meet in the third round.
In the boys’ competition, Finland’s Henri Kontinen showed that he is starting to feel more at home on Flushing Meadows medium-fast hardcourts by beating Dino Marcan of Croatia 63 67 63. “I’m starting to get more comfortable on hard courts. It’s only second the tournament after grass and clay courts and it’s getting better and once you get used to it it’s pretty good. I think today especially I served well, especially on the big points,” said Kontinen, who was runner-up to Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov at Junior Wimbledon in July. “I enjoy the US Open a lot. It’s probably where there is the most electricity of all the grand slams. I love it because I like playing when the people watching are into it. I think I can feed from that. I watched all the grand slams on TV growing up but this one was always special. I remember watching James Blake against Andre Agassi and Roger Federer against Andre Agassi too.”
Wednesday also saw wins for top seed Tsung-Hua Wang of Taipei, American Ryan Harrison and France’s Guillaume Rufin, the latter ending the winning run of Canadian Open winner Marcus Willis of Great Britain. There were also victories for Rhyne Williams of USA and Filip Krajinovic. Williams knocked out Mexican fifth seed Cesar Ramirez, while Krajinovic saw off Yuki Bhambri of India with a 76 64.
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