Kerber was once renowned for crumbling under the weight of expectation but believes her convincing semi-final victory over Caroline Wozniacki was proof of progress.
Advertisement
After finishing past year ranked 10th in the world, nobody could have predicted Kerber would go through 2016 as a three-time grand slam finalist and end up world number one.
Meanwhile, Pliskova will not play the final on Saturday and it will interest to see whether she will be able to handle the pressure of being the finalist or not.
“I don’t believe it”, Pliskova said on court afterwards.
The defeat means that Williams has lost her world number one ranking, with Angelique Kerber taking over in top spot.
History repeated itself for Serena Williams, and not in a good way.
Injuries and inconsistency have derailed her progress since but reaching a first grand slam semi-final since 2014 could prompt a return to form next year. Last year, it was by Roberta Vinci, a 300-to-1 longshot.
Powerful Czech star Karolina Pliskova has shocked the tennis world by beating US Open favorite Serena Williams at the semifinal stage on Thursday night. “That’s a final of a Grand Slam, so anything is possible”.
“There is not more than to beat both sisters in one tournament in NY”, she said.
Pliskova became the fourth woman to beat the Williams sisters in the same Grand Slam event, having taken out Venus in the fourth round, which she said prepared her for the Serena match.
“But this is something unbelievable”.
Serena accepted that she did not play well but Pliskova deserved to win. The Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd roared and Kerber celebrated by raising her right hand and wagging her index finger in the air as she took the opening set. “Nothing to complain about”, but was more forthcoming Thursday night after her loss. “I’m concentrating on myself and not on them”.
“Sure she has a lot of confidence, ” Kerber said of Pliskova said.
But this was Kerber’s turn to show some mettle, breaking back to 3-3 and then once again to seal the victory. She also revealed after her defeat that she had also been dealing with “serious left knee problems”. I wasn’t exhausted. Fatigue had absolutely nothing to do with it (loss).
Although Williams injured her left knee earlier in the U.S. Open, she didn’t use it as an excuse for the loss.
Defending Serve was very crucial while both are power hitters.
Advertisement
The world number 11 had never gone past the third round of a major tournament before but she simply outplayed Williams at her own game, with power, aggression and a blistering serve.
