Kerber opened the second set with another double break lead, and powered through to her third Grand Slam final of the year after an hour and a half contest.
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The 24-year-old had come to Flushing Meadows on the back of winning the title at Cincinnati. So will a 23rd Grand Slam championship, another record.
As a result of the loss, Serena will have to relinquish her number one ranking with German Angelique Kerber set to replace her.
“Karolina played great today”.
“Yeah, I have been having some serious left knee problems”, Williams said.
“I wasn’t exhausted from yesterday’s match”. She picked her spots and did what so many on the tour simply can not accomplish against Williams: win free points on her own serve.
She won the first four games en route to a 6-4, 6-3 victory that set up a rematch with Karolina Pliskova, who denied the German lefty the No. 1 ranking a few weeks ago then handed it to her Thursday night.
“I knew I had the chance to beat anyone if I played my game”.
And to think: The 24-year-old Pliskova had never been past the third round in 17 previous appearances at majors.
“I had a goal today to beat Serena”.
“I don’t see how it’s not fair”, Williams said. If I was exhausted I should definitely get into a new career.
Pliskova would win both of her points from there, however, and on her first match point, Williams hit a double fault, sending Pliskova into Saturday’s final. So it was not so easy mentally, but I was trying to, again, not put too much pressure on myself. And Williams remains even with Chris Evert with six U.S. Open trophies.
Despite Williams being the clear crowd favorite, Pliskova played very well.
Pliskova would go on to win 10 of the first set’s last 11 points.
The temperature was in the low 80s, and the air was muggy, and Williams kept using the pleats of her black-and-pink skirt to wipe her sweaty palms between points.
Watching Williams miss shot after shot – 31 unforced errors in all – one couldn’t help but wonder why.
Kerber would have taken over the No. 1 ranking then had she won that day, but Pliskova instead captured a breakthrough title. “When you’re injured, you’re thinking of other things when you should be playing and thinking of your shots”. Like, I was making errors that I never make, and definitely I didn’t make in this tournament in particular. I’m a professional player; been playing for over 20 years.
Karolina Pliskova, of the Czech Republic, wipes sweat from her brow between serves from Serena Willi …
“She didn’t show up”. She had previously never made it past the third round of a major, despite being inside the top 20 for almost two years. “She was so slow”.
With a short forehand and plenty of court space, Williams anticipated where Pliskova would place her forehand and sent her reply to the baseline. Pliskova’s power is of the sort that Williams so rarely is forced to confront – much like the difficulties the American’s own game presents others.
Pliskova serves well, leading the tour in aces this season, and her angled offerings gave Williams fits. Kerber beat Williams in the Australian Open final in January, then lost to her in the Wimbledon final in July.
Pliskova would go on to 10 of the first set’s last 11 points.
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They proceeded to hold serve until the tiebreak, when Pliskova completed the upset.
