Mladenovic complains about grass, ‘huge hole’ on Court 18 at Wimbledon

LONDON—Kristina Mladenovic complained about court conditions on Court 18 at Wimbledon, saying she was lucky that she did not get seriously hurt.

The Frenchwoman fell to Alison Riske in the second round, but both players requested to change courts. The referee did not agree to the request.

But Mladenovic, who fell during the match, said it was difficult to play on.

“The color of the court, the fact that there's no more grass, the fact that the baseline where we are running, it's very slippery. There's no grass,” she said. “All this part is slippery because I think there is no more grass. That part is quite huge. It is everywhere where we are supposed to run.

"Was a huge hole, so it was not even flat. I realized that because at the warm-up I kind of twisted a little bit my ankle."

The world No. 14 reached the quarterfinals at the WTA events in the Netherlands and Eastbourne. But in London, she found the conditions very different.

“I'm not criticizing. I'm not an expert at all on grass courts. I guess the climate doesn't help, the fact that it's too nice, too hot, too sunny, makes everything very dry. And it also makes it super slow,” Mladenovic said. “It's not even clay. It's not flat. It’s tough to put your strong footwork. You kind of have to run light and be careful, not to push or press too much, too hard, which is strange to play on.

"I'm just very blessed and happy I'm not injured right now, because we saw worse today.”

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