Google News
In a battle between generations, youth triumphed over experience as 19 year old French player Kristina Mladenovic defeated 42-year-old Japanese Kimiko Date-Krumm on Friday at the OEC Taipei WTA Ladies Open Challenger Series event.
Former junior grand slam champion Mladenovic won the last 9 games in a row to win 6-3, 6-0 and move into the semi finals of the WTA Challenger event. "I practiced with her at the beginning of the week and she hits the ball unbelievably on this surface," Mladenovic told the media after her win.
"I expected a very tough match. I'm happy it went faster than I expected. The key was my serve. I was serving very well and didn't miss many first serves. In the first set, I broke her serve once and that made the difference. Today everything worked pretty well for me." "Kimiko is such a nice person and such a good role model.
She has had such a great career and she's still playing good tennis. What she's doing at her age, I have so much respect for her. To beat her like this is great for me." The French girl will need to meet another Japanese player to reach the finals.
She will clash with Kurumi Nara, a 63 64 winner over 17 year old Zarina Diyas, in the semi finals Fifth seed Chang Kai-Chen upset no.2 seed Olga Govortsova 6-0, 6-2..