Kristina Mladenovic is a former World Number 1 junior who won the 2009 French Open Junior Girls Singles in 2009 when she was just 16-years-old.
The daughter of two athletes, her parents are now French subjects after they moved from the former Yugoslavia and Kristina lived in the Western suburbs of Paris in Boulogne-Billancourt.
| Birthdate: | 14-May-93 |
|---|---|
| Birthplace: | Saint-Pol-sur-Mer, France |
| Height: | 5 ft 11 in |
| Plays: | Rigth-Handed |
| Turned Pro: | 2009 |
She was introduced to tennis when she was 7-years-old by her parents Dragan, a professional handball player, and her mother Dzenita. She has a brother Luka who is a student and a football player and she has been coached by Georges Grove. Her father is her physical coach.
She started playing Junior competitions in 2006 at the age of 13 and it was just three years later she took the French Open Junior crown.
The same year she reached the finals of Junior Wimbledon in both singles and doubles but ended up as runner-up in both.
In September 2007 she began playing the ITF events and she also tried to qualify for the WTA Tour Open Gaz de France, but she lost in the first round of qualifying.
She had a Wild Card into the 2009 Australian Open but lost in the first round to the Number 14 seed Patty Schnyder.
2010 was a disastrous year for Mladenovic as she was out most of the year due to a lower back injury so she was delighted to be selected to represent France with Nicolas Mahut. It was played in Perth in January 2011 and France was in a group with Great Britain, Italy, and the United States of America.
Although France did not reach the Final Kristina Mladenovic caused an upset when she beat the gifted British junior Laura Robson giving France a victory over Britain.
She said after the tie “I’m very happy to be back on court because I had a tough and intense time when I was injured all last year. I’m just happy to manage to play like this already, and it’s just a pleasure to be back on the court.”
Kristina Mladenovic moved on to the Australian Open in Melbourne but she was beaten in the first round of qualifying by another British Junior Heather Watson.
After Melbourne, she came to London to play in the Sutton ITF Professional Circuit Tournament and she took the Singles Title.
Her goal is to become World Number 1, because of her injury in 2010 she had slipped to 327 however, she has improved since, and by the end of the 2012 season, she was ranked 93rd in the world.
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