Share

US Open 2016 Women’s singles final, Angelique Kerber v Karolina Pliskova

It was hardly a breeze as Kerber needed to stave off a ferocious rally from the 6-foot-1, hard-serving, tattooed Karolina Pliskova in surviving a three-set slugfest 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 at Ashe Stadium.

Advertisement

Kerber, who became the new world number one after Serena’s semifinal loss, showed her class when it mattered most to win her second Grand Slam of the year.

Meanwhile, 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.

The German, who also won the Australian Open in January, will also be the oldest player to debut at world number one when her place atop the summit is made official on Monday.

Comparisons, though, are inevitable after Kerber became the first German to win the US Open since Graf claimed the last of her five Flushing Meadows crowns in 1996.

“It means a lot to me”, Kerber said.

“Everything starts here in 2011 and now I’m here with the grand slam trophy”, she said in her post-match interview.

Kerber, who is taking over the No. 1 ranking for the first time, is in her third major final of the year, while this is the first of Pliskova’s career. Moments later, she trailed 3-1.

In that game, she had been down, 0-30, and held serve to lead, 4-3. I would say she maybe felt a little bit, at least in the beginning of the match, better. “First, she has a match here that she’s focused on”. Kerber was coming off a tiring run to the Olympic gold-medal match then and dealing with the pressure of her first chance to ascend to the top of the rankings.

“(Here) I can really prepare for the final against Pliskova.

Prior to this fortnight, the 24-year-old had never been beyond the fourth round at a major despite being an established player the previous two seasons. After returning to the court and sitting down, Kerber was reduced to tears of joy.

Pliskova missed a seemingly easy volley and was broken to begin with after popping a string.

Three weeks ago with that win in Cincinnati, Pliskova stopped Kerber from reaching No. 1. I found some power in myself in the second set.

Pliskova, meanwhile, had fully settled on serve, holding easily.

The crowd – wanting a third set – cheered on Pliskova.

Her victory over Venus Williams in the fourth round, which she described as a tougher assignment than beating 22-time Slam victor Serena in the semis, required her to save a match point. The errors rose – but so did the drama.

Left-hander Kerber used to get down on herself when mistakes piled up.

Furthermore, before NY she had never got beyond the third round of a Slam in 17 attempts. Two errors gave a break back to Kerber in the sixth game.

Advertisement

The match opened with Kerber breaking a jittery Pliskova and ended the same way, though for most part it was a very even contest. She celebrated, sensing it was a momentum changer. But No. 1 Serena Williams was upset Thursday night by Karolina Pliskova, the rising Czech Republic player with a scintillating serve. Kerber defeated Danish Caroline Wozniacki, 6-4, 6-3, to advance to the last round.

Bruno Soares of Brazil left talks with doubles partner Jamie Murray of the United Kingdom during the men's doubles semifinals against Pierre Hugues Herbert of France and Nicolas Mahut of France at the U.S. Open tennis tournament Thursday S