It was a first meeting between the two young guns vying a third round berth. Kristina Mladenovic had hopes to make it to at least the third round of the last few majors she has entered, and Nicole Gibbs was hoping to improve her previous record here at the Australian Open as well. It was the Frenchwoman who prevailed powering through the first set before overcoming a tough second set tiebreak to win 6-1, 7-6(4).

The Fiery Mladenovic Forehand

It was a set of powerful tennis by the Frenchwoman. Mladenovic fired many forehand winners while Gibbs was made to be on the defensive. The first break of serve came as Gibbs was serving, as an unforced forehand error allowed Mladenovic to lead 3-1.

The Frenchwoman continued her service games with ease and barely gave Gibbs any opportunity. The 28th seed used her serve and forehand to good effect. Mladenovic broke once more after a poor game by the American before sealing the set 6-1 with ease.

Tight Set Ends With Mladenovic Winning The Tiebreak

The American finally created her first break point chance in the fourth game and she grabbed it to extend her lead to 3-1. Although Mladenovic was firing down a lot of winners, she was hitting a lot of unforced errors too. But the Frenchwoman fought back to break back to level the score at 3-3. Both woman held their serves comfortably for the rest of the set.

Nicole Gibbes Fight Back | Photo Courtesy of: Paul Crock(Getty Images)
Nicole Gibbs Fights Back | Photo Courtesy of: Paul Crock(Getty Images)

In the tiebreak, Gibbs drew blood first with a mini break to go 4-2 up because of a double fault by Mladenovic. It was her first of the entire match and could not have come at a worse time. But Gibbs could not hold on as a Mladenovic forehand caused her to make an error to tie the score at 4-4. And then it was Gibbs’ turn to hit a double fault to hand Mladenovic a 5-4 lead. The 28th seed hit a beauty of a forehand to set up match point, and she completed the match with another forehand winner, defeating Gibbs 6-1, 7-6(4).

The result meant that Mladenovic reached her first ever third round here at the Australian Open. She faces another rising star in Daria Gavrilova next, who ousted sixth seed Petra Kvitova.

The Match Statistics

It was great serving from the French who hit 71 percent of her first serves and won 85 percent of them. In comparison, Gibbs got in 61 percent of her serves.

Mladenovic hit an incredible 29 winners while Gibbs hit 10. The American made less unforced errors though with 16 compared to Mladenovic’s 24.

The 28th seed also converted three out of the four break points she created while Gibbs converted just the one she had.

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About the author
Pavitra Ganesan
Tennis enthusiast and aspiring journalist.