As she does against most opponents, Kerber would make Pliskova swing two, three, four extra times to try to end a point.
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Although Pliskova won 80 percent of her serve and volley points, she deployed the tactic only ten times.
US Open champion Angelique Kerber feels she is ready to carry the responsibility of being world number one. “When you’re hampered you’re thinking of other things”, she said.
She made 47 unforced errors, against just 17 for Kerber, but on the other side of the equation hit almost twice as many winners, 40 to the German’s 21.
She won the first four games en route to a 6-4, 6-3 victory that set up a rematch with Karolina Pliskova, who denied the German lefty the No. 1 ranking a few weeks ago then handed it to her Thursday night.
The 28-year-old has returned the favour in NY as her victory preserves two of Graf’s long-lasting records.
Never a Grand Slam finalist before 2016, Kerber beat Williams for the Australian Open title in January, then lost to her in the Wimbledon final in July.
Pliskova showed life midway through the second set when she finally broke Kerber’s serve for the first time.
“It’s just unbelievable”, a beaming Kerber, told an adoring crowd after being handed the winner’s cheque of $3.5 million. “But I would say it was a little bit tougher to play Venus because obviously I was match point down and she was serving much better than Serena was tonight”. It’s never easy for the player who is attacking and is doing more mistakes.
While it’s a total bummer that Serena Williams didn’t make it into the U.S. Open women’s final, we’ll still be treated to an unbelievable match between Karolina Pliskova and Angelique Kerber. “Yeah, it is just incredible, actually”, Kerber spoke of her climb in WTA rankings, as quoted by US Open’s official website.
She couldn’t help but keep one eye on Karolina Pliskova’s stunning US Open semi-final victory over Serena Williams – which assured Kerber would gain the ranking she’s been inching toward for weeks. Even in the second set there was some complications.
Long regarded as a top defensive player, Kerber reaped the benefits of her makeover in the very first major of the year, reaching the Australian Open final and beating Serena Williams for her first major. Instead, Pliskova won that day for a breakthrough title and has been riding the momentum ever since.
Kerber’s win at the US Open caps off a brilliant 2016 campaign. From there, she held her serve and took a 3-1 lead in the final set. “Obviously, she’s had a great year”, the Dane said.
Kerber took advantage of Pliskova’s big-match nerves – evidenced by a couple of misses at the net – to break in the opening game. It doesn’t happen often that you- “re in the final of Grand Slams”. Last year, it was by Roberta Vinci, a 300-to-1 longshot.
“It’s a great feeling”, Murray said in his post-match interview when reminded he’s accomplished something his more famous younger brother, Andy, has not by winning two major titles this year.
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“I wasn’t able to move the way I wanted to move”.
