For the second year in a row, Serena Williams’ bid to make history ended with a shocking loss in the U.S. Open semifinals.
Advertisement
Jamie Murray, of the United Kingdom, left, and Bruno Soares, of Brazil, pose for a photo with the championship trophy after beating Pablo Carreno Busta, of Spain, and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, of Spain, to win the men’s doubles.
“It’s just incredible. It’s a great day”, Kerber said on court.
“To be in the final means a lot and to be number one in the world sounds wonderful”. Now the two will meet once more in the women’s final, the first major final of the year without Serena.
“When I was a kid I was always dreaming to be the number one player in the world and win grand slams and today is the day I won my second grand slam here, especially in NY”.
In the second-set tiebreaker, Pliskova led 3-0.
It’s the second straight year that Williams has bowed out in the US Open semis.
How much longer might she keep trying to prove people wrong?
“I mean, definitely, I would say now that she deserves to be No. 1”, Pliskova said. And after frittering away her first four break points, she converted her fifth with a lob-volley victor that curled over Kerber and alit right by the baseline.
The 28-year-old left-hander, who won the Australian Open in January and was Wimbledon runner-up in July, is the first German woman to reach the final in NY since Steffi Graf in 1996.
It is also a place the Williams sisters, with eight U.S. Open singles titles between them, consider home for nearly two decades where rude guests like Pliskova are made to feel unwelcome.
The top seed’s disappointment is doubled as she also surrenders the world number one ranking to Angelique Kerber.
Kerber had won the opening set 6-3.
That comes against Pliskova, who never had been past the third round in 17 previous major appearances but became only the fourth woman to beat both Williams sisters during one Grand Slam tournament. “She doesn’t give you anything”.
It was late in this US Open semifinal match, and once again, the lopsided nature of Serena Williams’ r?sum? versus her opponent’s didn’t matter. Even in the second set there was some complications.
NEW YORK (AP) The last time the two women’s finalists at this U.S. Open, Angelique Kerber of Germany and Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, played each other, it really was no contest. “That’s what I did”, Pliskova said.
Born in Bremen to a Polish father and a German mother, Kerber, who began playing tennis at age three, lives inPuszczykowo, Poland, where her grandparents run the Centrum Tenisowe Angie tennis academy.
Pliskova, who has led the WTA Tour in aces the last two seasons, kept the 34-year-old American under pressure nearly from the start and had break chances on all but one of Williams’ service games in the first set and converting twice. Whether it’s Kerber or Pliskova, this year, women’s tennis has proved the victor with its unexpected storylines, rising stars, and breakthrough moments.
It was Pliskova who guaranteed Kerber’s ascension in the rankings by beating Williams in the semifinals, ending her record-tying 186-week stay at the top, which began in February 2013. Kerber won the Australian Open title and was the runner-up at Wimbledon. “Serena, she’s a champion so it’s never easy to play her”.
Advertisement
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. “I think if she had played any less then maybe I would have had a chance”, said Williams.
