She defeated Williams to win her maiden Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, and followed up by advancing to the Wimbledon final and capturing a silver medal in singles at the Olympics.
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After the game, Serena fielded questions on why she made so many mistakes and played sluggishly.
“For me, it’s just incredible to be after Steffi the next number one player in Germany”, said Kerber, who at 28 will become the oldest player to reach number one.
It was the first major semifinal for Pliskova, who beat the 34-year-old American’s older sister Venus in the fourth round.
“I wasn’t able to move the way I wanted to move”, she said. “It gave me a lot of confidence, and that’s what tennis is all about”, Pliskova said.
Perhaps underlining her service problems, Williams slumped out of the competition on a double-fault, her sixth of the match. I wasn’t exhausted. Fatigue had absolutely nothing to do with it.
With the two biggest hitters in women’s tennis standing across from each other the match was expected to be an explosive affair filled with booming serves. “To be No. 1 in the world, it sounds fantastic”.
“I hope I don’t stop yet, there is still one more step to go”.
She simply attributed her defeat to the great play of her tenth ranked rival, Karolina Pliskova, highlighting the good serves by the Czech player.
Angelique Kerber is plotting revenge over her friend Karolina Pliskova to celebrate becoming world number one by winning her first US Open title on Saturday.
The disappointment is doubled for Williams as it means she will also surrender the world number one ranking at the end of the tournament to Germany’s Angelique Kerber. “For the crowd, it’s not probably the best that I beat both of them in their country, but for me, it’s really something special”.
At age 28, Kerber becomes the oldest player to debut at No. 1 and the first German to hold the top spot since Steffi Graf.
Kerber would have taken over the No.1 ranking then had she won that day, but Pliskova captured a breakthrough title and has ridden that momentum since.
But a clearly annoyed Williams refused to use fatigue as an excuse for her loss. “Not just enjoy but to win”.
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At least she has the consolation of knowing her surprise run to a fifth semi-final in the city where she keeps a second home will translate to a place back in the world top 30.
