Angelique Kerber of Germany reacts after beating Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark at the US Openin New yOrk Thursday.
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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.
Although Pliskova played superbly and kept her nerve, Williams was suffering from a shoulder injury which she had sustained earlier in the tournament. But she was eliminated at the hands of Karolina Pliskova, the 10th seed, in the semifinals on Thursday. “To be number one in the world, it sounds fantastic”.
She also said she wants to try to control points more than she did the last time she faced Pliskova. “I lost to her, I won”.
“Karolina played great. I think if she had played any less then maybe I would have had a chance”. Pliskova, a 24-year-old from the Czech Republic, won the match 6-2, 7-6 (5), and advanced to the women’s final.
However, one of her few blips in 2016 came recently in Cincinnati when she went down 6-3 6-1 to Pliskova in the final.
“I’m only really proud-you know, obviously I’m a perfectionist and I love to win”.
Pliskova becomes only the fourth player to beat both of the Williams sisters in a Grand Slam event, after overcoming Venus in the fourth round.
She was on the ropes again, though, surrendering a break when her lunging forehand found the net to give Pliskova a 3-2 lead. The veteran star will likely lose her No. 1 ranking after this latest loss, but even after the misstep, Williams is only willing to focus on the positives.
Serena will now have to wait until January 2017 to pursue her 23rd Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.
All in all, it’s been quite a special 2016 for Kerber.
Kerber won the first set of Saturday’s U.S. Open final 6-3 over Karolina Pliskova.
Although Williams declined to go into any details, she explained: “I wasn’t able to move the way I wanted to. She deserved to win today”.
“I was just pushing too much the balls there”, Kerber said, “so I think I will change this a little bit”. “I made a lot of errors”.
After splitting the first two sets, Pliskova pushed ahead for a 3-1 lead in the third but was stopped in her tracks by Kerber who leveled the score with a break. She’ll continue to share the 22 record titles with Steffi Graff.
The 28-year-old, who was unable to get beyond the third round at any major last year, said fitness and aggression were behind her improvement. Kerber was coming off a tiring run to the Olympic gold-medal match then and dealing with the pressure of her first chance to ascend to the top of the rankings.
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Kerber said she will learn the lessons from her loss to the Czech, who has won 11 matches in a row and had never been beyond the third round of a major before arriving in NY. “I’m starting to move out of the shadows”.
