But one counterintuitive factor escaped everyone’s attention: In numerous ways that count, the 36-year-old Williams and the 24-year-old from the Czech Republic are mirror images.
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Each competitor broke the other’s serve six times and finished the contest with equal numbers of aces – eight – and double faults, with six apiece. She recognized a reduction in Williams’s serve in the second set, and ratcheted up her forehands, finding ways past Williams’s wingspan.
At 36, Williams was trying to become the oldest Grand Slam quarterfinalist since Martina Navratilova was 37 at Wimbledon in 1994.
Pliskova advances to face either Agnieszka Radwanska or Ana Konjuh in the quarterfinals.
Venus Williams stood on the floor of Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday afternoon with a guttural roar rising all around her. There was not any reason for me to think about it, that I will lose this match today.
Yes, it can require three brilliant shots to win the point against Venus Williams. “I’m just trying to play my way into this tournament”. Sixth-seeded Venus is on first against 10th-seeded Karolina Pliskova, who is in the round of 16 at a major for the first time. “I was obviously a little bit down after this game because I was so close”. Halep defeated Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain, 6-2, 7-5, in the fourth round, and has lost one set in four matches.
At 36 years old and the oldest remaining player in the draw, Williams battled until the bitter end as her 24-year-old Czech opponent needed five match points and almost two-and-a-half hours in a seething Arthur Ashe Stadium to put away the two-time champion. “It was like this before in the Grand Slams”. She heard that and said it made her “a little mad”, but realized the crowd would be in her favor if they were playing in the Czech Republic.
She remembered growing up with the Williams sisters winning Grand Slams on television. “I got the power from the crowd in every match”.
Wham. Whap. Bap! Pliskova played the ideal point on match point, depositing a drive volley into the open court that was set up by a courageous backhand. “I really have no regrets on that”.
“That’s a balance that you make when you play the kind of game that I play”.
Looking to progress beyond the fourth round in Flushing Meadows for the first time in her career, Radwanska appeared on track for a routine win after earning a 2-0 lead at the start of the opening set but it was all downhill from there.
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Still, Williams reached match point at 4-5, 30-40 in the third set.
