Kerber, who beat Williams in the Australian Open final for her first slam and fell to the same player in the Wimbledon title match, has one unfinished piece of business – getting even with Pliskova, who beat her in last month’s Cincinnati final.
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“I made a lot of errors and I didn’t play as well as I have been playing”, Williams said, “She (Pliskova) was a good, all-around player”.
Williams, whose 22 grand slam titles has her tied with Steffi Graf, was bidding to break the professional era record with victory in NY. “She had a great four weeks in a row.I will go out here to enjoy my first final here and try to win the match, of course”.
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.
In New York, her form and confidence grew with wins over No17 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and then Serena’s sister, Venus, to take her winning run to 10, but she had never before been past the third round at a Grand Slam. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach before the match, but once it started she said she felt no anxiety at all.
Pliskova will meet Angelique Kerber in Saturday’s final, Kerber beating a resurgent Caroline Wozniacki in the night’s second semifinal, 6-4, 6-3.
Kerber is now World number one dethroning Serena.
The world number one would play better in the second, and takes a 5-4 lead, as she is able to dictate play on this point and fires a backhand victor into the open court.
Kerber leads the head-to-head 4-3. The pressure that had been building all year – pressure Williams had flatly dismissed – seemed to paralyze her.
“Probably people ruled me out, but it’s nice to prove people wrong once again”, Wozniacki said.
The 24-year-old Pliskova is in her first major semifinal, but she looked more relaxed than the 22-time Grand Slam champion in taking the opening set 6-2 in just 26 minutes Thursday, breaking Williams’ serve twice.
It was the second consecutive year she lost in the US Open semi-finals while chasing history – last year she was attempting a rare calendar-year grand slam, but was upset by Roberta Vinci.
As a result, Pliskova also ranks No. 2 overall with 39 aces.
This will be a disappointing loss for Williams as she relinquishes her world number one ranking and loses in the semifinals in NY for the second consecutive year. When some suggested that scheduling her matches on successive days was unfair, especially in light of her knock-down, drag-out tussle with Halep in the quarterfinals, she snapped. “But at the end of the day, I don’t think it would have made a difference”.
Showing the heart of a champion, Williams battled back from a break down to force a tiebreak where she clawed back from 3-0 down to take a 4-3 lead.
Williams survived two double faults to start the next game.
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However, the night at Flushing Meadows ended up with a jubilant Kerber showing her class to dispose of Wozniacki. Even if she wins the second, it’s not the point.
