I had a lot of different chances and whether it be that she served an ace or she played a really good point, the opportunities were gone. “Being able to get so many matches against quality players has been good”.
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The 23-year-old was flying the flag for Great Britain after the early exits of Johanna Konta, Heather Watson, Naomi Broady and Laura Robson, but her own adventure came to an end at the quarter-final stage in a straight-sets loss to China’s Saisai Zheng, going down 6-2 6-4.
Riske played a fantastic match from start to finish, but she’ll likely rue her fourth and fifth set points. The result? A hard-fought title on at the Aegon Open in Nottingham for the first grass title of her career.
A semi-final at Stuttgart and a quarter-final at Indian Wells is the best she has managed during 2016 and her ranking has slipped from world number two a year ago to 11 now.
Vandeweghe beat compatriot Madison Brengle 6-4 6-2 to set up a clash with France’s Kristina Mladenovic, who came from a set down against top-seed Belinda Bencic to win 2-6 6-3 6-4. It was a brutal match because she played so well.
Unsurprisingly they cost her as Pliskova worked an opening for herself and duly converted to take a 1-0 lead after an hour on court.
“It was a brutal match and congratulations to Karolina”, Riske said after the match.
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Former Wimbledon semi-finalist Simona Halep withdrew from the WTA Birmingham tournament with an Achilles injury on Sunday, just two weeks away from the season’s third Grand Slam event at the All England Club.
