Mladenovic even referred to Saturday’s third-round matchup at Court Philippe Chatrier against the 21-time Grand Slam champion as “a dream”, explaining: “I grew up watching Serena play”.
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“I’ll have to make no mistakes if I want to do something against her”, Mladenovic added.
With Serena Williams about to start a second-set tiebreaker against Kristina Mladenovic, heavy rain has halted play in the French Open’s third round.
British number two Aljaz Bedene faces top seed Novak Djokovic later on Chatrier.
She did it by playing much more cleanly than Kvitova, making half as many unforced errors (36 to 18) and getting broken only once.
In the women’s draw, Garbine Muguruza, Simona Halep and Samantha Stosur all made it through to the fourth round.
That put the 35-year-old into the fourth round in Paris for the first time since 2010 and heading for a possible semi-final showdown with her sister.
And another American, No. 15 Madison Keys, got that far at Roland Garros for the first time with a 7-6 (3), 6-3 victory over Monica Puig.
No. 23-seeded Jack Sock bowed out Friday, beaten 6-7 (2), 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 by 55th-ranked Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain in a match that lasted 4 hours, 11 minutes.
Tennis – French Open – Roland Garros – Serena Williams of the U.S v Kristina Mladenovic of France – …
The only time Williams managed to crack Mladenovic’s serve was at the end of the first set.
The French player had to save just the one point next time she came to the line, the ninth on the spin in the set, and 11th from 12 overall – but the match was descending into farce at 4-4, when Williams might have had it all wrapped up. Williams would have her first of five match points at 6-5, however, winning four consecutive points before she botched an overhead out of the air and over the baseline. Given a fifth chance on Mladenovic’s serve, she had to do no more than watch her opponent’s final forehand drift long.
Williams is chasing a record-tying 22nd Grand Slam singles title.
The French sensation has had victories over Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 6-4 and Timea Babos 6-4, 6-3, and a win over Serena Williams would be a massive upset.
No. 12 seed Carla Suarez Navarro fought through physical issues to beat No. 22 Dominika Cibulkova 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, setting up a fourth-round encounter with unseeded Yulia Putintseva, who beat Karin Knapp 6-1, 6-1.
With Roger Federer back in Switzerland with a back injury and twice women’s champion Maria Sharapova provisionally banned pending the outcome of an anti-doping hearing, the tournament is already missing some of its star turns.
As did rising Austrian Dominic Thiem, the 13th seed, who continued his fine claycourt season to beat German teenager Alexander Zverev 6-7(4) 6-3 6-3 6-3.
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Play was scheduled to resume at Roland Garros shortly after 16:30 BST. He will next play Spain’s Marcel Granollers, who reached the fourth round without hitting a ball after nine-time champion Rafael Nadal withdrew due to a wrist injury. Many American viewers watched the conclusion of Serena-Mladenovic from a fixed camera high above the court, with Tennis Channel and NBC oscillating between live and taped coverage.
