Reality collides with fiction – just a little – at this year’s U.S. Open women’s final, when the unheralded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic goes for her first major championship against a player that has only this year started to make a greater name for herself in Angelique Kerber of Germany.
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The semi-final stage of the US Open was the departure point for Serena Williams past year, a surprisingly early exit in her hunt for the Grand Slam.
Kerber was previously a player known for crumbling under pressure but seemed to have a watershed moment when defeating Serena Williams in January’s Australian Open final and has continued to impress.
The upstart Pliskova should give Kerber a tough match thanks to her serving, but the German should leave NY with her second Grand Slam of 2016, along with her new No. 1 ranking.
This year it was Czech 10th seed Pliskova, who until this week had never played beyond the third round of a grand slam, delivering the upset as she swept Williams off an Arthur Ashe Stadium court she claims as her own in one hour, 26 minutes.
Kerber celebrated her ascension with a 6-4 6-3 win over Caroline Wozniacki to advance to the U.S. Open final, where she will meet Pliskova. “I was actually really exhausted because I came from Rio and I had a lot of tough matches there”, Australian Open victor Kerber, who claimed silver at the Rio Olympics, told reporters.
“When I was really young I was always dreaming of being World No.1”, Kerber said.
Played in her first grand slam tournament at the 2012 French Open where she came through qualifying before losing to world number eight Marion Bartoli in the first round. In her serve, she has a weapon that could prove to the deciding factor. “I was trying to not think too much the whole last few weeks about this, and now I reach it”.
“We played a lot of times”.
For the second straight year she saw her bid for a seventh U.S. Open title halted.
With the victory, Pliskova completed a Williams family double having also beaten Serena’s older sister, sixth-seeded Venus, in the fourth round. “If I can’t turn around after 24 hours and play again then I shouldn’t be on tour”.
Her success on the tour has comfortably compensated for her dislike of school with career earnings of $4,499,235 which will be boosted by $3.5 million if she wins the US Open on Saturday.
Pliskova won the first of her six titles in Kuala Lumpur in 2013 before adding Seoul and Linz in 2014 and her hometown trophy in Prague in 2015. “First, she has a match here that she’s focused on”.
But not only did Pliskova dominate Williams in their semifinal matchup on Thursday, but Angelique Kerber stole the 34-year-old’s spotlight by becoming the number one ranked tennis player in the world on Thursday night. She defeated Serena at the Australian Open, but lost to her at Wimbledon.
But things went as planned on Friday in the men’s singles semifinals, for the most part.
“I took a lot from that week”, she said of her Cincinnati title, the biggest thus far in her career.
And while there was no title to win on this day, Williams stepped onto the court with something to lose. I just, you know, wanted to win, actually. I’m going to do whatever it takes to win.
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This was the first back to back match for either semifinalist, Williams, Pliskova, Kerber or Wozniacki during this season’s Open, playing both Wednesday and Thursday night.
