According to U.K media outlet, Yahoo sports, Williams, who had to reach the final to have any chance of retaining top spot, relinquished the ranking to Germany’s Angelique Kerber.
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Karolina Pliskova is only the fourth woman to beat both Williams sisters in the same Grand Slam tournament – and she thinks needing to face Venus in the U.S. Open’s fourth round was quite useful when it came time to face Serena in the semifinals.
Arthur Ashe Stadium court may not be tennis’s grandest stage but it certainly is the sport’s biggest – and loudest – with more than 23,000 fans routinely filling the tennis cauldron during the U.S. Open fortnight. “I know what to change”.
On Thursday night, 28-year-old Angelique Kerber of Germany became the oldest woman to take over the world number one ranking. That time, Pliskova denied her the opportunity.
“For me, it’s just wonderful to be after Steffi the next No 1 player in Germany”.
Now the two will meet once more in the women’s final, the first major final of the year without Serena. Then Kerber went out and looked like a top-ranked player, winning the first four games en route to a 6-4, 6-3 victory.
Kerber already was assured of making her debut at No. 1 in the WTA rankings on Monday, ending Serena Williams’ record-tying 186-week stay at the top.
Kerber is into her third major final of the year after dispatching Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets at the U.S. Open.
Serena said she had “talked a little bit” with Venus about Pliskova’s game but added she received little in the way of advice.
Early in what would become a tight test of a U.S. Open final, Angelique Kerber sprinted forward to somehow reach a drop shot and scoop a down-the-line victor that landed in a corner of the court. And after frittering away her first four break points of the match, she converted her fifth with a lob-volley victor that curled over Kerber and alit right by the baseline.
But this was Kerber’s turn to show some mettle, breaking back to 3-all and again to end it.
And to think: Pliskova, 24, had never been past the third round in 17 previous appearances at majors. She could end it as a two-time major champ.
Pliskova, a rising star on the court, has something in common with Williams. Kerber beat Williams in the Australian Open final in January for the first Grand Slam trophy of the German’s career.
There are, however, some key differences, including that the earlier one was at a run-of-the-mill event and the upcoming one is at a Grand Slam tournament.
Pliskova’s inability to cut out the unforced errors and capitalise on several break points eventually saw Kerber take the first set 6-3 with a second break.
“It’s just incredible. It’s a great day”, Kerber said on court. “I lost to her, I won”.
Pliskova got in just 53 percent of her first serves, and Kerber was all over her second serves, winning 71 percent of those points.
The German leads Pliskova 4-3 in their head to heads, but the Czech won their most recent meeting in the Cincinnati final last month.
Mattek-Sands and Safarova won the Australian Open and the French Open in 2015.
Angelique Kerber and Karolina Pliskova are playing for the U.S. Open championship.
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Pliskova beat Kerber in the final at Cincinnati almost three weeks ago for a breakthrough title for the 24-year-old Czech, and she’s been riding that momentum ever since. Either way, the decision worked: Pliskova double-faulted on the match’s first point and got broken from the get-go.
