“If you want my real honest opinion, I think the opponents woke me up because they were showing un-sportsmanship [sic] during my serve and I got really mad. I was like ‘OK, this is how the match is starting,'” Mladenovic told John Cain Arena.
“It woke me up and I was very composed with my partner and we fought together to find a solution. That was a trigger point for me and it woke me up.”
Mladenovic and Zhang were beaten Wednesday in the quarterfinals by No. 1 seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, but Kichenok wasn’t about to let the incident rest. A day later, she took to social media to air her side of the story, responding to Mladenovic’s accusation with one of her own.
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“I would like to clarify the situation that has happened in my third-round Australian Open match against Kristina Mladenovic. Publicly accused of bad sportsmanship, I would like to say my word,” Kichenok wrote on Instagram.
