Andy Murray continues his impressive summer with his twenty-second consecutive win, reaching the Western & Southern Open finals after a 6-3 6-3 win over four seed Milos Raonic. We know though that Kerber’s strength is to run everything down, and she will need to try and exploit Pliskova’s movement.
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“I’m happy with how I played today”, said Pliskova. “It’s one of the best years in my career”. “I’m in the finals now, which means a lot to me”.
But Pliskova wasn’t done yet, quickly regaining her lost break, and with Muguruza still struggling with her serve, it wasn’t long before she found herself a break up again, with match point following shortly after.
Nadal had a lot of fun in Rio, but came away running on fumes. “And yeah, let’s see what happens in the next weeks or next days. Still one match to go”.
Halep, with her back to the wall, cut loose and began finding her range with aggressive swings from both wings and won the next three games.
“I’m so happy I finally won my first match”, said Muguruzu, who has been the victim of tough draws on her previous visits. “I was just hoping the ball would go in because I don’t know what to do with the racquet!”
Kerber and third seed Halep – victor of her last 13 matches – were delayed an hour by rain and then interrupted for 30 minutes.
No. 15 Karolina Pliskova Def.
Victory was never in doubt for Muguruza, who did not drop serve and won three of nine break points. “If it happens, it will be wonderful, but still I have to focus on the next match against a real tough opponent”.
The German held on in the next game, setting up a match point and taking the win despite breaking a string on the final point.
Pliskova’s keys to victory will be using her serve effectively and the Czech served her 400th ace of the year in her semifinal encounter with Muguruza, and she has been returning well this week on the North American hard court.
Fresh from her silver medal at the Rio Olympics, second seed and Australian Open champion Kerber was relatively comfortable against Kristina Mladenovic in Cincinnati.
The German, who has repeatedly stressed that she’s not thinking about the significance of what she’s about to achieve this week when peppered by reporters and broadcasts journalists, played like a future No. 1 on Saturday as she moved past Halep with a brilliant display of counterpunching and grace under pressure.
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The doubles finals will take place at 5.15pm United Kingdom time (12.15pm local time) on the Grandstand court, and will be Martina Hingis and CoCo Vandeweghe v Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova.
