Beaten Mladenovic blasts 'slippery' court

France's Kristina Mladenovic has blasted Wimbledon organisers after crashing out in three sets on a dramatic day for the women's draw.

A prone Kristina Mladenovic.

France's Kristina Mladenovic lies prone after falling on the 'slippery' Wimbledon court. (AAP)

French 12th seed Kristina Mladenovic brushed aside her second round defeat at Wimbledon, saying she couldn't care less about it and was just happy she had not been injured.

Mladenovic was beaten 2-6 6-4 6-4 by unheralded American Alison Riske, but insisted her main concern had been getting off Court 18 in one piece on a dramatic day that saw Bethanie Mattek-Sands suffer a horrific injury and tournament favourite Karolina Pliskova eliminated.

The defeat of Arina Rodionova also brought Australia's singles tilt to an end.

"Honestly, the feeling is that I couldn't care less if I lost the match today, I just want to be healthy," Mladenovic said.

"I'm just so blessed and happy that I am not injured today, because we saw worse today."

Her comments came just two hours after American Mattek-Sands had been carried off a different court on a stretcher, screaming in pain with a serious knee injury.

Mladenovic said she and Riske had both asked to not play on the court after the first two games.

"It's quite unique with your opponent, after two games, you both agree on stopping playing in a slam," she said. "You asking the referee to tell you what's the rule if both players don't want to keep on playing. And the answer is that they just can't do anything, unfortunately, and you have to keep on playing.

"I think you can all pretty much see. First of all, I don't know, the colour of the court, the fact that there's no more grass, the fact that the baseline where we are running, it's very slippery.

"There's no grass. I don't know how to describe it. It's not even clay. It's not flat. I mean, I don't know ... I'm just honestly very happy and blessed that I didn't injure myself that much."

The All England Club said it had no immediate reaction.

Mattek-Sands's conqueror Sorana Cirstea said Court 17 had been a little slippery, but that it was nothing out of the ordinary.

"We all know grass, it's quite dangerous sometimes," she told reporters.

Pliskova had been leading by a set and a break but collapsed to lose 3-6 7-5 6-2 by 87th-ranked Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova, who put on a never-say-die show of gutsy tennis after coming back to the game after injury to blow the women's draw wide open.

World No.1 Angelique Kerber was pushed by Belgium's Kristen Flipkens but ultimately prevailed in straight sets 7-5 7-5. Seeds Timea Bacsinszky, Garbine Muguruza, Agnieszka Radwanska, CoCo Vandeweghe and Svetlana Kuznetsova also advanced.


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Source: AAP



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