It’s not perfect ... there are a few problems, admits ‘Kiki’ Mladenovic

NEVER MIND the 16 double faults, Kristina Mladenovic downed defending champion Garbine Muguruza 6-1 3-6 6-3, sending the Roland Garros crowd into raptures as their darling reached the quarter-finals of the French Open yesterday.

After a jittery opening set, Spanish fourth seed Muguruza rallied but 13th-seeded Frenchwoman Mladenovic,

pictured, perfectly played the key points in the decider to set up a meeting with Timea Bascinszky. Mladenovic, who has been hampered by back problems, tops the tally of double faults produced at Roland Garros, having served 40 since the tournament started. Even though she won yesterday, she kept adding to that total.

‘Kiki, Kiki!” yelled the crowd as Mladenovic, who is of Serbian heritage, speaks good English and cheers herself up in Italian, negotiated her way through the tricky fourth-round match.

“I love you, too,” she told the chanting crowd after the win on a sunbathed Court Suzanne Lenglen. She paused. “You make me cry,” she continued. “Let me try to speak. It’s a last-16 match against the defending champion. Big match, which I was waiting for.

“It’s not perfect, there are little problems but I fight as I can. I served 35 doubles but it’s good because you give me so much strength,” added Mladenovic, who has been tipped as one of the tournament favourites after reaching the finals in Stuttgart and Madrid on clay this season.

With Alize Cornet taking on Caroline Garcia in the fourth round today, two Frenchwomen will be in the last eight for the first time since 1994.

That year, Mary Pierce reached the final, losing to Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario. Pierce went on to lift the Suzanne Lenglen Cup in 2000, the last Frenchwoman to do so.

Elsewhere, Rafa Nadal returned to Roland Garros after his birthday celebrations and showed no signs of slowing up, railroading compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut 6-1 6-2 6-2 in the fourth round yesterday.

In yet another ominous performance, Nadal destroyed his opponent on Court Suzanne Lenglen to move into the quarter-finals and one step closer to a 10th Roland Garros crown.

Nadal, who turned 31 on Saturday and celebrated with two cakes, will next face another Spaniard, Pablo Carreno Busta, for a place in the semi-finals.

“He’s a friend whom I appreciate very much,” Nadal said of Carreno Busta.

“I hope things are going well for him, and he’s someone I really like. He’s a good person. I think he deserves it.”

Meanwhile, Caroline Wozniacki moved a step closer to erasing an unwanted footnote from the list of her tennis achievements with victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth round.

Wozniacki is that rare beast: a twice year-end world number one-ranked tennis player who has never won a grand slam.

There have been others but none who reigned so long at world number one – 67 weeks – without success on the grand-slam stage. The Dane beat Kuznetsova, a player with two grand-slam titles in the bag but who has never scaled the women’s rankings to the very top.

The 6-1 4-6 6-2 victory eased Wozniacki into the quarter-finals at Roland Garros, matching her best performance here in 2010.

“Obviously it’s just kind of clicking this week,” Wozniacki smiled as she spoke to reporters. “Hopefully I can keep going this way. Now I just try and stay focused and keep my head down.”

Wozniacki streaked into the lead on a sun-baked Philippe Chatrier court, running away with the first set as 2009 champion Kuznetsova struggled with her range.

Eighth seed Kuznetsova soon struck back to level matters, using her weight of shot to overpower the Dane.

Kuznetsova was always likely to hit the big winners but they were too few, and errors more plentiful, as Wozniacki grabbed two early breaks in the decider.

The 11th seed, her luminous green racquet a rapier to Kuznetsova’s broadsword, eased into a 3-0 lead but after a few meaty swings Kuznetsova broke back.

It was only a temporary reprieve for the Russian, though, and Wozniacki reasserted her control, pummelling a two-fisted backhand down the line to win the match, before firing a ball into the upper tier of the stands.