Danish top seed Caroline Wozniacki slumped to a shock 6-4, 6-2 defeat to 60th-ranked Varvara Lepchenko in her opening match of the WTA Tour’s Stanford tournament on Thursday.
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The fourth-seeded Pliskova, from the Czech Republic, recorded her 39th victory of the season, one shy of leader Serena Williams. As the modest crowd swelled in numbers as the match wore on, the better Lepchenko played. “I have found some level I could play”. “I think we can see that every week pretty much”.
She’s been to three Premier-level finals before, all earlier this year, but she’s fallen just short each time, at Sydney (to Petra Kvitova), Dubai (to Simona Halep) and Birmingham (to Angelique Kerber).
“There have been a lot of surprises this week”, Pliskova said. Beyond that, they are both baseline bombers with excellent returns of serve, and true to their nine prior head-to-head meetings, it was a protracted battle of physical will and strategic wile.
Riske and Svitolina played evenly in the first two sets Friday before the Russian wore Riske down in the final set. “This couldn’t be a better start to the hardcourt season, and I hope I can build off this”.
The tall, hard-serving Pliskova, who will vault into the WTA top 10 next week regardless of how she finishes Sunday, dominated the first set and took a 2-0 lead in the second set.
The world number 11 will meet American Varvara Lepchenko in the semi-finals on Saturday while Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina will play Germany’s Angelique Kerber at the tournament in Stanford.
“I’ve been playing well this week”, Kerber said.
It looked and felt like a final, with Kerber ultimately pulling out a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory in 2 hours, 26 minutes. I’m not losing because of my serve any more. “I’ve done well here before, so I feel confident coming in here that these courts will suit me. I’m happy with my performance”.
Mathieu advanced to his first semifinal of the year by beating Federico Delbonis of Argentina 6-3, 0-6, 6-3, while Almagro defeated Dusan Lajovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-4. “The seeded players have been struggling and the draw is open for anyone”.
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Game, set, match. It was the first win by Lepchenko over Wozniacki in five tries. And when Lepchenko went up 4-1, a reeling Wozniacki requested to conference with her coach.
