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Pliskova Stuns Serena To Reach Final

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

NEW YORK, NY, USA – No.10 seed Karolina Pliskova reached her first Grand Slam final in style, shocking top seed Serena Williams, 6-2, 7-6(5) in the semifinals of the US Open.

“It was always a dream to, you know, get a title, get to the semifinal, get to the final,” Pliskova said in her post-match press conference. “So, I mean, it’s a big result for me. I hope I didn’t stop yet, that there is still one more step to go. I’ll do anything for getting the title.

“Even if I don’t get it, it’s a big result. I’m really happy to be there and even have the chance to play in the final here. It doesn’t happen often that you’re playing a semifinal against Serena on center court here in New York. It doesn’t happen often that you’re in the final of Grand Slams.”

Pliskova came into her first major semifinal having won her last 10 matches, dating back to a title run at the Western & Southern Open; the 2016 WTA ace leader was in ruthless form on serve against Serena, striking seven aces and winning 84% of first serve points.

“I was pretty calm today. Before the match I felt a little bit like pressure, nervous. But when I stepped on the court I didn’t feel anything. I just wanted to win. Not just enjoy but to win.

“I knew I’m going to have my chances even if she’s playing her best. There is always a chance in those two sets. I was calm during the whole match. Even in the second set there was some complications. I was up a break.

“But it never can be so easy to play No.1 in the world. You cannot win, 6-2, 6-1, so I wasn’t expecting a match like this. I was prepared for anything, even if I would have lose the second set I would be ready for the third.”

Serena, by contrast, had just won an epic match over No.5 seed Simona Halep less than 24 hours ago, and appeared to struggle with a left leg injury that was later confirmed by coach Patrick Mourataglou. Pushing Pliskova into a second set tie-break, the World No.1 threw in a sixth double fault to end the contest after just 85 minutes.

“I have been having some serious left knee problems,” Serena said after the match. “I wasn’t tired. Fatigue had absolutely nothing to do with it. If I was tired I should definitely get into a new career.

“I think she’s been on tour for numerous years and she’s had some good wins. She was doing so well last year, was so close in so many finals, and I think maybe this was her year to really do well, at least here at the Open.”

Still, it was a banner day for the Czech powerhouse, who played flawless tennis throughout and showed off her improved mobility to hit 19 winners to just 25 unforced errors. Serena hit one more winner but six more errors and only managed to engineer one break point on the Pliskova serve. Pliskova became the eighth woman ever to defeat both Williams sisters in the same tournament, and the fourth to do it at a major tournament.

“There is not more than to beat both sisters in one tournament in New York,” Pkiskova said. “I’m really excited about those two wins.

“For the crowd, it’s not probably the best that I beat both of them in their country, but for me it’s really something special. Obviously the match with Venus helped me, not only with the game, but also with the crowd, also. It was my first match on center court, so I knew I was to play center court one of the Williams sisters against all the people there. I was prepared for it. I was prepared for a fast game, for great serving, and probably it helped me.

“That’s maybe why I won the match today.”

Up next for the 24-year-old is either No.2 seed Angelique Kerber – the new World No.1 after Serena’s loss – or former No.1 Caroline Wozniacki. Pliskova beat Kerber in the final of Cincinnati just two weeks ago, ironically preventing the German from hitting No.1 earlier.

“If I play Kerber tomorrow I’ll know her very well. We played a lot of times. I lost to her; I won. So I will be ready for anything. That’s a final of a Grand Slam, so anything is possible. Of course, probably nerves from both sides. We both have a good chance to win.

“But I will just do anything to win the title here.”

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Top Seed Wang Into Dalian QFs

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

DALIAN, China – Top seed Wang Qiang won a topsy-turvy encounter on Thursday against Han Na-Lae to reach the quarterfinals of the Dalian Women’s Tennis Open.

Watch live streaming from Dalian all week right here.

Strong performances on the ITF Circuit this year have seen Wang close in on a Top 50 debut, which she could secure with a deep run in Dalian. However, she was given an unexpectedly stern examination against lucky loser Han before finishing strongly to close out a 6-3, 1-6, 6-1 victory.

Grace Min will meet her in the last eight after she upset No.6 seed Jana Cepelova, 6-4, 6-3. This was not the afternoon’s only upset, either; Aleksandra Krunic knocked out No.3 seed Duan Ying-Ying, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, while Wang Yafan defeated Tamira Paszek, the No.4 seed, 6-2, 7-6(2).

Also advancing was last year’s runner-up, Julia Glushko, who fought back to see off qualifier Peangtarn Plipuech, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

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LIVE: Primetime Semifinals In New York

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

WTA Insider | In the latest WTA Insider Live Blog, The semifinalists fight for the final at the US Open; will there be a third major final between Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber?

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Garcia & Mladenovic Book Final Date

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic eased into the US Open final with an impressive straight set win over Martina Hingis and CoCo Vandeweghe on Thursday afternoon.

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#tbt: When Dasha Met Dasha

#tbt: When Dasha Met Dasha

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

Same name, same game? Not if you’re Daria Gavrilova and Daria Kasatkina, two of the most impressive young risers of the 2016 season.

Each have earned career-high rankings this year despite a fire and ice on-court contrast. Gavrilova’s boundless energy and big cuts at the ball have earned her big wins over Petra Kvitova and Simona Halep. Kasatkina’s steadier rise and smoother swings helped her begin the season by beating Venus Williams and Timea Bacsinszky.

Off the court, the pair are completely in-sync, finishing each others sentences and joking about everything from their first meeting on the singles court at last year’s US Open to their decision to play doubles this summer. Celebrate the one-year friendaversary of “The Dashas” – or Dasha and DashKa – courtesy of a chat with WTA Insider, held after their first round win over Gabriela Dabrowski and María José Martínez Sánchez:

On how they met…

GAVRILOVA: Well, I was meant to play Maria Sharapova…
KASATKINA: It’s a nice story! I got lucky loser.
GAVRILOVA: She got a lucky loser, and I only found out two hours before I was going to bed, and I was like, ‘Who is this girl?’ I had no idea.
KASATKINA: I knew her for a lot of years, and she didn’t remember.
GAVRILOVA: She was telling me that she and her brother both knew me.
KASATKINA: Short memory; it’s ok, Dasha!
GAVRILOVA: They were watching me when I was younger.
KASATKINA: Oh yes, we were big fans!
GAVRILOVA: After the French Open this year, we decided to play doubles together.
KASATKINA: No! I think at the end of the year, we’d already started talking about it…
GAVRILOVA: But at the time, I was set with Svitolina and she was playing with Vesnina. So we were thinking, ‘What are we going to do?’
KASATKINA: We started at Wimbledon.
GAVRILOVA: We did all right there.
KASATKINA: We did two rounds!

On becoming friends…

GAVRILOVA: First, we said hello to each other last year. After I lost to her, I came up and said, ‘Hey Dasha, good luck tomorrow!’ But she was so scared of me. She was shy.
KASATKINA: Because after the match, you went off the court and you started to scream at your coach.
GAVRILOVA: She was 18 and super new on tour. She was scared of everything…
KASATKINA: …And she was so experienced already.
GAVRILOVA: Our match was a big battle, and I had a few tough calls there.
KASATKINA: It was such big motivation for me; I had to take my chances.
GAVRILOVA: But I went up to her after the match because I’m kind of normal, I guess.
KASATKINA: And I was still under pressure, saying, ‘Thank you.’
GAVRILOVA: Now we practice more together with the doubles and stuff. But Montréal was our first singles practice. In Indian Wells, we still didn’t really know each other much. I don’t know when we started hanging out.
KASATKINA: I’m not sure either. Little by little.

On whether they talk tennis…

KASATKINA: This year, I asked her what it’s like to defend points, because of Rome.
GAVRILOVA: I did all right there.
KASATKINA: You made it pretty good.
GAVRILOVA: But her coach is experienced, so he gives good advice.
KASATKINA: My coach, he is. He is.

On doubles strategy…

GAVRILOVA: Well, we know we’re good from the baseline…
KASATKINA: You mean good from behind?
GAVRILOVA: And at Wimbledon, it really works, you know, to just grind on the grass.
KASATKINA: Yeah, it really works. Spin the ball, kick serve.
GAVRILOVA: We probably do a lot more of standing across from each other at the baseline, more than other doubles teams.
KASATKINA: But now we’re starting to play more of a doubles game. More normal.

Daria Gavrilova, Daria Kasatkina

On beating doubles specialists in their first round…

GAVRILOVA: I’d played them at the French Open with Elina, so I kind of knew what to expect. Our coaches studied them a little bit. We knew what was coming, so we played to our strengths. Yesterday we practiced for two hours…
KASATKINA: Only doubles.
GAVRILOVA: We didn’t really have a chance to practice doubles. Before Montréal, we got a wildcard and didn’t have to do anything.
KASATKINA: Montréal? Cincinnati!
GAVRILOVA: Oh, Cincinnati, yeah.
KASATKINA: Before the Olympics, we didn’t play doubles because of that. So I played with a Russian player. Dasha had to play with Australian player.
GAVRILOVA: So in our first match Cincinnati, we didn’t know what was happening, or what to do.
KASATKINA: We played not so good.
GAVRILOVA: But now that we’re doing some doubles training, we’ll get our stuff together.

On doubles helping singles…

GAVRILOVA: Well, after losing in the first round, we were really excited to be playing doubles!
KASATKINA: Hey, our singles matches were very good!
GAVRILOVA: No, we saw each other in the locker room. I think I finished just before her…
KASATKINA: I came into the changing room, and she was sitting, talking on the phone. I looked at her; she looked at me.
GAVRILOVA: We just gave each other a big hug.
KASATKINA: And time stops!
GAVRILOVA: We hugged for like 10 minutes, sitting there like, ‘Oh, man…’
KASATKINA: It was so bad, asking each other what happened in our matches.
GAVRILOVA: We were complaining like, ‘I worked so hard,’ and she was saying, ‘I did too.’ We didn’t talk about doubles though.
KASATKINA: We forgot about doubles.
GAVRILOVA: But we had dinner together – actually, she’d already had dinner, but we hung out after for a little bit.
KASATKINA: We had a little lemonade!
GAVRILOVA: We ordered lemonade, asking like, ‘There is no alcohol, right?’ So we had to have two lemonades.
KASATKINA: The lady comes and asks us what we want to drink; they had Sprite, and the lemonade.
GAVRILOVA: She told us it was French, and I was like, ‘It’s not champagne, right?’ They said no, and we were like, ‘Great!’

Follow Dasha on Twitter @Daria_gav, and DashKa on Twitter @DKasatkina.

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Insider Podcast: Serena Passes Test

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

WTA Insider | In the latest Daily Dispatch, hear Italian journalist Luca Baldissera’s take on his compatriot Roberta Vinci as well as a preview of the remaining fourth-round clashes.

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By The Numbers: US Open SFs

By The Numbers: US Open SFs

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

NEW YORK, NY, USA – Who has enjoyed the smoothest passage to the final? What does Angelique Kerber need to do to top the rankings? And just how impressive has Serena Williams’ serving been?

These are just a few of the questions answered in a US Open semifinal edition of wtatennis.com’s By The Numbers.

439 – Karolina Pliskova’s three aces against Ana Konjuh took her tally for the year to a WTA leading 439 from 54 matches.

110 – The average rank of Pliskova’s opponent en route to the last four is 110 (No.243 Sofia Kenin, No.192 Montserrat González, No.92 Ana Konjuh, No.6 Venus Williams and No.18 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova).

84 – Serena’s peerless delivery has helped her win 149 of 177 (84%) points on her first serve – the best percentage of any singles player this fortnight.

74 – Wozniacki is currently ranked No.74 – her lowest position since August 2007. Aside from unranked Kim Clijsters in 2009, Wozniacki is bidding to be the lowest-ranked finalist in US Open history.

60 – Serena has struck more aces, 60, than any other player in the tournament. Kerber, meanwhile, has hit just six.

52 – Kerber’s victory over Roberta Vinci in the quarterfinals was her 52nd of the year. This is the most by any player on tour (Simona Halep is her closest competition, with 40 wins).

48 – Wozniacki has won 48 of her 71 meetings with left-handers on tour. Seven of these defeats have come against Kerber, including four on hardcourts. The Dane has, however, won their only two meetings stateside, at Cincinnati (2014) and Indian Wells (2013).

34 – Williams will be aged 34 years and 350 days at the end of the tournament, making her the second-oldest US Open semifinalist in the Open Era, after Billie Jean King in 1979, who was 35 years, 291 days.

33 – Williams is appearing in her 33rd Grand Slam semifinal. For Pliskova it is her very first.

17 – In her 17 previous Grand Slam appearances Pliskova had never reached the second week. The last player to reach a major semifinal having never previously been beyond the third round was Madison Keys at the 2015 Australian Open.

10 – Wozniacki has defeated two Top 10 players (No.9 Madison Keys and No.10 Svetlana Kuznetsova) this fortnight – a feat she had never achieved in 36 previous majors.

7 – Wozniacki is the seventh unseeded player to make the US Open semifinals since the number of seeds was increased to 32 in 2001; the others were Clijsters (2009), Yanina Wickmayer (2009), Kerber (2011), Flavia Pennetta (2013), Peng Shuai (2014) and Vinci (2015).

6 – Pliskova is projected to reach a new career-high ranking of No.6 and could rise as high as No.5 by winning the title.

4 – Williams is bidding to reach all four major finals in the same year for the very first time. The last player to achieve this feat was Justine Henin in 2006.

2 – In her five matches Williams has dropped serve just twice – both coming during her quarterfinal against Halep.

1 – Williams needs to win her semifinal to have a chance of extending her 186-week stay as World No.1. If Kerber advances to the final, Williams will need to win the title to hold on to top spot.

0 – The number of sets Kerber has conceded en route to the semifinals. The last player to win a major without dropping a set was Serena at the 2014 US Open.

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US Open Thursday: Semis Set

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

And then there were four! Serena Williams will lead a strong quartet of semifinalists into action on Day 11 in New York. Chris Oddo previews the action for wtatennis.com.

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Pliskova Romps Past Konjuh At US Open

  • Posted: Jan 01, 1970

NEW YORK, NY, USA – No.10 seed Karolina Pliskova is into her first Grand Slam semifinal after a commanding victory over 18-year-old Ana Konjuh at the US Open.

Both were making their Grand Slam quarterfinal debut – in fact, neither had been past the third round at any Slam before the fortnight – but experience won out for Pliskova, who had little trouble moving past Konjuh in the 57-minute, 6-2, 6-2 romp.

“I was kind of nervous this morning, before the match,” Pliskova said of playing in her first major quarterfinal. “But always when I get on the court I just forget about everything and I’m not nervous anymore.”

“And I’m just trying to play tennis. Maybe I will think about all what I have been playing last few weeks after the tournament, but right now I just don’t want to, you know, put it in too much inside me. I just want to play.”

The victory is especially affirming for the Czech, who’s been a dangerous player at the WTA level for the past two years since her breakthrough, but could never translate that big game onto the big stage.

“To be honest, the Grand Slams before, I wasn’t feeling bad in any of them,” Pliskova said after her third round press conference, the first time ever she’d reached the second week of a Slam. “But just somehow the game on the court wasn’t the way I wanted it to be.

“I was just a little bit tight, I wasn’t playing my tennis, wasn’t aggressive enough. If I’m not playing my game, I cannot beat those players like this. I cannot be the one who is running.”

Pliskova didn’t need to do much running against Konjuh, the lowest-ranked and youngest player in the quarterfinals. The Czech is famous for her huge serve – in fact she’s been the WTA’s ace leader for two years – but Pliskova kept her biggest weapon reigned in. She hit just three aces, much lower than her eight-a-match average, but was still lethal on serve, winning 92 percent of points behind her first serve during the match – 100 percent in the first set.

The 18-year-old Konjuh also wields a powerful serve, which she showed off during her impressive takedown of Agnieszka Radwanska in the last round. But the Croat struggled to hold onto it against the big-hitting Pliskova, who broke her twice at the outset of the match to go up 4-0 in the first set, then twice at the end of the second.

Pliskova closed out the match with back-to-back aces to reach her first Grand Slam semifinals.

Despite the one-sided loss, Konjuh only takes the positives away from her Grand Slam experience.

“You know, I cannot be sad after all of this,” Konjuh reflected in her post-match press conference. “Good luck to her. She’s having great season so far, and, you know, I’m cheering for her.”

“But overall, I’m happy with my results here. When I came here I could only imagine playing the quarters. I think it’s been a great tournament.”

Pliskova awaits the winner in the night match between Serena Williams and Simona Halep to play for a spot in the final.

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