The match ran 2 hours, 7 minutes with Kerber holding a narrow 97-90 margin in points.
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The 28-year-old became the oldest player to rise to that rank when the new list was published on Monday, capping a memorable summer that also included the Olympic silver medal at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics and a Wimbledon final appearance.
On Saturday, the No. 2-seeded Kerber trailed by a break at 3-1 in the third set before coming back against the 10th-seeded Pliskova, who hadn’t been past the third round at a major until this tournament.
“I think I’m ready to have this pressure on my shoulder, because I think I get used to all of this, especially after my first grand slam in Australia”, Kerber said.
“I had so much pressure on my shoulders”, Kerber said. She was able to maintain it with authoritative play from the baseline, fending off three break points before cracking Pliskova’s serve again when the Czech double-faulted to give her a set point. Pliskova, meanwhile, converted just two of seven break-point chances. And Pliskova was troubled by that in the early going, making 17 unforced errors in the first set alone, 14 more than Kerber.
“It’s just awesome”, Kerber said in her on-court interview, voice breaking.
“I knew it was going to be hard”.
The 28-year-old left-hander, who beat Serena Williams in the final at Melbourne and lost to the United States great in the Wimbledon final, will officially rise to World No. 1 on Monday. The change is due both to Kerber’s win and to Williams’ shocking loss to Pliskova in the semi-finals, a match that ended her 186-week streak atop the rankings. Serena, the youngest of the Williams sisters, was in the 1st place since February 18 2013 when she replaced Belarusian Victoria Azarenka. She’ll always remember the 2011 U.S. Open as “the turnaround” of her career.
“When I was a kid, I was always dreaming to be No. 1 and to win Grand Slams”, a clearly emotional Kerber said afterward.
I was trying to stay in the moment, Kerber said.
“I can not play 30 times across the net”.
Kerber and Graf have become friends in recent years and they spent some time practising together in Las Vegas at the end of last season. It has been quite a turnaround for a player who did not play into the second week at any of the four grand slams previous year. Eventually, Kerber would watch plenty of Graf’s matches.
“Yeah, when I won the point I knew, Okay, I have the feeling”, said Kerber of the forehand.
“I heard from her yesterday (Friday) or like two days ago”.
“This is unbelievable. I came here without the goal of winning it but just to step on the court trying to win”. She’s the fighter she was before, but right now she believes more in herself. It’s extremely rare for a first-time finalist like Pliskova to actually win a Grand Slam. Pliskova served out the second set and spiked a ball. She is also now 10th in the Race to Singapore leaderboard which only takes in points gained in 2016.
Serena Williams has played only eight tournaments, too few, and it remains unsure whether she will bother turning up for the year-end WTA Championships in Singapore next month.
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“It didn’t look good”, Beltz said about the deficit.
