The 28-year-old has enjoyed the 2016 campaign after reaching three Grand Slam finals so far.
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With a third Grand Slam final of the year on the horizon, Angelique Kerber couldn’t afford to lose her focus despite realizing her once only dreamed-of rise to world No.1.
Pliskova will now face either Kerber or Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in her first grand slam final on Saturday. “To be number one in the world, it sounds incredible”.
“It was not so easy to go on court because I knew before I started that if Serena lost of course that I will be the number one”, Kerber said.
“I don’t believe it”.
On the other hand, Serena got 4-3 and 5-4 in the decider, but she wouldn’t stand on that.
She also wasn’t having the notion that she was exhausted after playing her quarterfinal match on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old double faulted when facing match point in the second set tiebreak, which was met with a muted response from the American audience and wild celebrations from the Eastern European.
“Yeah, I have been having some serious left knee problems”, Williams said.
“I wasn’t able to move the way I wanted to move”, Williams said. “It would be not be a good thing if I just kept on looking at her to see if she’s injured or not”. Before the match I felt a little bit like pressure, nervous. “But it was what it was”.
Kerber would have overtaken Williams to the top spot last month if she had defeated Pliskova in the final of Cincinnati Open on 21 August. “It doesn’t happen often that you’re in the final of Grand Slams”.
Kerber holds only a slight edge in their head-to-head record, with four victories in their seven matches. But that was always going to be hard in a year in which she has played only seven tournaments.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “If I can’t turn around after 24 hours and play again then I shouldn’t be on tour”. She followed that up with a run to the Wimbledon final, where she lost to Williams.
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Even though Pliskova has already had a noteworthy tournament by beating both Williams sisters and getting to the championship round, it seems unlikely she will beat Kerber. She adamantly denied that she was exhausted from the game the night before, and she said she wasn’t going to make any excuses for the way she played. I can’t say anything too much [about Pliskova] after [Serena] playing like this. “It gave me a lot of confidence, and that’s what tennis is all about”, Pliskova said. “Not now. I’m not ready for it yet”, Pliskova said. “I’ll do anything for getting the title”.
