Karolina Pliskova advanced to the semi-finals of the Bank of the West Classic with a 6-2 6-4 win over Croatia’s Ajla Tomljanovic on Friday.
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“I really enjoyed the semis today and I’m happy I’m still improving match by match”, said Pliskova after chalking up her 39th win of the season.
“She’s tough to play because she is everywhere and is hitting fast”, the 11th-ranked Pliskova said. “The ball was flying a lot and I really didn’t practice much the last few days. I was pretty fresh going into this match and knew with the preparation I had done, I had a good chance to beat her”.
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). She averaged 105 miles an hour, topping off at 115, on her first serves and won 81 percent of her first serve points. 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. “For me, it was a new start, new courts, new balls and a new tournament”.
Lepchenko, who beat top seed Carolina Wozniacki in the second round, committed 50 errors, 24 of them unforced.
Fifth-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany faces eighth-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in the second semifinal.
Kerber had a quick turnaround from playing a late night quarterfinal Friday and had more than enough to get past the 20th-ranked Svitolina.
The out-of-nowhere win by Lepchenko, ranked No. 60, officially turned the BOTWC upside down.
Her opponent in the semifinals at noon is Lepchenko, who dropped a first-set tiebreaker before prevailing 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-3 over Barthel. “In the second set I was trying to be more aggressive and just trying to fight and turn around the match”. “Right now I feel like I am in better condition than I was earlier in the year”. Regardless, payback was sweet for the Japanese star.
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Looking for his fifth career title, Mathieu will play top-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria or Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in Saturday’s final. Varvara Lepchenko dispatched the two-time U.S. Open finalist, 6-4, 6-2. And when Lepchenko went up 4-1, a reeling Wozniacki requested to conference with her coach. Kerber not only came back to win the game but also broke Radwanska in the next game en route to taking the set that pulled her even heading into the deciding set.
