WATCH: Mladenovic And Kichenok End Heated Australian Open Clash Without Handshake
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Kristina Mladenovic and her partner Shuai Zhang reached the Australian Open women's doubles quarterfinals. However, their third-round match generated more headlines because of an incident between Mladenovic and one of her opponents.
Mladenovic is one of the best doubles players in the world. She has eight Grand Slam titles in women's and mixed doubles and has been the runner-up on several other occasions at the four majors.
Some of her successes were with Caroline Garcia, who lost in the opening round of the Australian Open to Naomi Osaka. Garcia's singles success means she and Mladenovic received much attention as a team.
Mladenovic and Zhang have built a solid partnership. They reached last year's US Open final but lost to Jelena Ostapenko and Lyudmyla Kichenok in straight sets after a mostly one-sided match at Flushing Meadows.
The Frenchwoman faced Kichenok again in the Australian Open third round, although her partner this time was Chan Hao-Ching. Mladenovic got her revenge by beating the pair 7-5, 6-2, alongside Zhang.
Afterward, there was some confusion at the net, which can be seen below. While Zhang and Ching warmly embraced, Mladenovic and Kichenok didn't shake hands and waited for the other two's embrace to end.
That was an awkward moment. In an on-court interview after the match, Mladenovic explained that she felt Kichenok and Ching had engaged in unsportsmanlike behavior during the contest, meaning a handshake was not deemed deserved.
"Well if you want my real honest opinion I think the opponent team woke me up because they were a little bit showing unsportsmanship during my serve and I got really mad. So I was like okay this is how the match starting and then it woke me up."
"I was very composed with my partner and we fought together to find the solution. So actually, yeah, that was really a trigger point for me at the beginning, you know. It woke me up and it was getting better and better during the match for the game and I am pleased with our level."
Mladenovic did not elaborate on what their opponents had done to anger her. If there was deliberate unsportsmanlike behavior from Kichenok and Ching, they might regret it since the eight-time Grand Slam doubles winner thrived afterward.
That was not the only handshake incident at this year's Australian Open. Paula Badosa and Marta Kostyuk's handshake at the end of their singles match, which Badosa won, was very cold and did not involve eye contact.
That was initiated by Kostyuk. Speaking in a press conference afterward, Badosa said her Ukrainian opponent's views related to Russia's ongoing illegal invasion and war against Ukraine were among the reasons for her actions.
That may have been an indirect way of saying Badosa's friendship with the Belarusian WTA world No. 1, Aryna Sabalenka, angers Kostyuk. The Belarusian government has supported Russia's actions in Ukraine from the beginning.
Hopefully, there will be no more tension at the net in any other matches at this year's Australian Open, and all the players will show respect to one another without any incident.
