“So many simple, simple shots that I easily could’ve made and I just blame that on mentally thinking about my leg and just not thinking about the shot”. I’ll do anything to get the title.
Advertisement
“Even if I don’t get it, it’s a big result”. It doesn’t happen often that you’re playing a semi-final against Serena on centre court here in NY.
Williams was supposed to be the one to supplant Graf at the Open and log the second-most Grand Slam singles titles at 23. I played against her in Cincinnati. “I think I had a pretty positive attitude mostly, outside of maybe my second round”.
“I was watching the match a little bit before I came here but I was trying to focus on this match, not the match before”, Kerber said. But when I stepped on the court I didn’t feel anything.
“I wasn’t able to move the way I wanted to move. Not just enjoy but to win”.
“I don’t think much went well today”, she said of losing to first-time major semifinalist Pliskova. There is always a chance in those two sets. So I definitely wasn’t exhausted from yesterday’s match at all. She relinquished a break advantage midway in the second but prevailed in a tense tiebreak. I was up a break.
The changing of the guard as women’s top player also safeguarded Graf’s share of the record for most consecutive weeks at No. 1 with Williams at 186. “Let’s see what we will do if I win it here”. I lost to her. “It wasn’t a five-hour match”. Pliskova is looking for right time and taking it when Serena delivered her sixth double fault of the match. “When you’re hampered you’re thinking of other things”, she said.
“Obviously, the match with Venus helped me…not only with the game, but also with the crowd”, Pliskova said. If I was exhausted, I need to find a new career. “She will go out there and try and win her first Grand Slam, but at the end I will try the same”.
But Williams dismissed those claims.
Kerber was once renowned for crumbling under the weight of expectation but believes her convincing semi-final victory over Caroline Wozniacki was proof of progress. That development and her defeat of Wozniacki gave the German star a thrill.
Advertisement
Pliskova may be the underdog but she is also the player in form, having out-gunned Williams to seal her 11th win in a row. “I was actually really exhausted because I came from Rio and I had a lot of tough matches there”, Australian Open victor Kerber, who claimed silver at the Rio Olympics, told reporters.
