The Czech continued her dominance on serve by serving out to love leading 5-1, and Konjuh held onto her serve from 15-30 down with a backhand victor placed in the corner, to make Pliskova serve for the opening set.
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Even Pliskova was surprised with the ease of her victory in her first ever Grand Slam quarterfinal that puts her into her first ever Grand Slam semifinal. “She’s having great season so far, and I’m cheering for her”.
“I’m just happy that it’s now and that it came”, Karolina Pliskova, who is participating in the 18th Grand Slam tournament of her career, was the only current member of the top 20 in the WTA rankings who never had even been past the third round at a major.
Pliskova advances to Thursday’s semi-final, where she will face the victor of Wednesday night’s match between the top-ranked Williams and the No5 seed, Simona Halep. Today on the court, you know, she found her rhythm and took the opportunities that I gave her. I’m trying to be calm in the match because it’s not really helping me.
“I wasn’t at my best level today for sure, but she was just too good”, said Konjuh, who upset fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska to reach the quarter-finals.
The Czech’s decision to skip the Rio Olympics has proved to be a vital one as she is now enjoying a ten-match winning streak and won the biggest title of her career in Cincinnati.
So maybe this is her time. “I’m just happy that it’s now and that it came”.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “I don’t care at what time it came”.
Okay then, so maybe she is just a more experienced and mature player.
Konjuh was 15-40 down on her serve but a drop shot victor with Pliskova firmly placed on the baseline, followed by a backhand volley victor got the game to deuce but the Croat was unable to sustain her mini-revival with a backhand error into the net, and a double fault handed Pliskova the double break and chance to serve for the match. “So that I am improved a lot”.
“I think just everything is on time. I’m happy that I could, you know, play my game on the biggest tournaments, which I didn’t play past year”. That’s all Pliskova wants. More in the practices than in the matches.
Kerber, who booked her semi-final slot on Tuesday with a 7-5, 6-0 victory over 2015 finalist Roberta Vinci, can still nudge Serena from the summit.
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“I mean, it would be a dream, but unfortunately I’m in the part of the draw with Serena, so it would be very tough to get through this one”, Pliskova said. But, well, I’m not gonna complain. Always there is a chance. “But I’m still going to hope that there is going to be some chance in the match where I can get my chance and be the one who is playing aggressive”.
