Babos battles past partner Mladenovic in San Jose

SAN JOSE, CA, USA - No.8 seed Timea Babos rallied from an early break to defeat doubles partner and friend Kristina Mladenovic, 6-4, 6-2, advancing into the second round of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in straight sets.

"Surprisingly, I was able to stay calm," Babos joked during her on-court interview. "You know me, sometimes I can go crazy, but I kept myself together. That was the key. I started to play better and better, and I started to use my tactics, so I was able to close it out."

Born just four days apart, Babos and Mladenovic reunited at the start of 2018 after several seasons apart to immediate success, winning the Australian Open as the Hungarian ascended to World No.1 for the first time after Wimbledon.

"I've also been home since Wimbledon, and got good media attention after becoming No.1," she recalled to WTA Insider after the match. "There's more focus on me because I was the first to achieve something like this; No.2 or No.3 isn't quite like No.1, and I discussed with my coach last year that I not only want great results in singles, but also on doubles. I'm glad to have finally won a Grand Slam after all the finals, and now I've gotten the No.1 ranking so early in my career.

"It started around Beijing where I began feeling I didn't want to only go to Singapore just to go and be there. [Andrea Sestini-Hlavackova] and I really went there to win it, and we did! We worked a lot on my doubles game, added a couple more exercises to improve there. I was already Top 10 with great results, but I maybe needed that extra 5% at the net. In singles, I'm at the net maybe five times each match, but even today, I had some volleys I'm able to hit now because of the doubles."

Though she trailed Mladenovic in their overall head-to-head, Babos had won their last two matches dating back to 2016, and ultimately continued the trend after 81 minutes on court.

Mladenovic nonethless made it tough for her partner and enjoyed a strong start on Stadium Court, earning the first break of the match and edging ahead into a 4-2 lead in the opening set.

"It's tricky with the courts and the ball; we're playing with Penn balls here, and I really like them. I'm proud of how I dealt with the stress in the important moments. When it really counted, I was able to take that first set and get into a flow.

"It's very tough," she added on-court. "We were both tight in the beginning, and I was a little more so she was able to take advantage of that. It's always a pleasure to share a court with her, whether it's next to me or against me. At the end of the day, friendship is more important; I'm happy with the win, but I'm sure we'll have more moments like that."

Babos went on a roll from there, winning eight of the next nine games and broke serve twice more in the second set to book a second round clash with rising Greek star Maria Sakkari.

In all, the 25-year-old Hungarian maintained cleaner stats throughout, striking 21 winners to 23 unforced errors while Mladenovic struggled to find her rhythm off the ground, hitting 13 winners to 32 unforced errors. On break points, Babos converted four of eight opportunities, the final break coming on her second match point.