Williams, who had only one break point in the match, fought back from 3-0 down in the tie-break to lead 4-3, but double-faulted on the next point and again on match point. 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.
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Kerber earned her first career No. 1 ranking before she even stepped on court Thursday with Serena Williams’ loss in the first semifinal. She didn’t win the tournament. “She was doing so well last year, was so close in so many finals, and I think maybe this was her year to really do well, at least here at the Open”.
It was a brief respite as she then broke for the fifth time in the match to march into a third Grand Slam final of the year. This one goes pretty high on the list, too.
The 28-year-old German – who will rise from second to first in the rankings Monday, ahead of Serena Williams – became the first female player other than Williams to win two majors in a season since Justine Henin in 2007. Pliskova is only the fourth woman to beat both Williams siblings during the same Slam.
“I was pretty calm today”.
“I mean, definitely, I would say now that she deserves to be No. 1”, Pliskova said. She was wishing me luck for the final.
“For sure”, Kerber told Pliskova during the trophy ceremony, “you have a great future”.
She was playing in her first Grand Slam semifinal, while it was Williams’ 33rd.
The 24-year-old Czech tennis star beat the 34-year-old Williams 6-2, 7-6 to make it to the finals of the Open.
Kerber won the first set of Saturday’s U.S. Open final 6-3 over Karolina Pliskova.
The temperature was in the low 80s, and the air was muggy and still, and Williams kept using the pleats of her black-and-pink skirt to wipe her sweaty palms between points. Instead, Williams and her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, pointed to the left leg that she repeatedly clutched at in the second set. “She’s not going to win the third”. “So I definitely wasn’t exhausted from yesterday’s match at all”.
“I have been having some serious left knee problems”, Serena said after the match, as per wtatennis.com.
“She didn’t show up”. Earlier, Pliskova bent down at the waist in glee as Williams failed to return her forehand in play. “She was so slow”.
Either way, Pliskova surely contributed to Williams’ woes. It was surely to blame for the rare sight of two straight double faults in the seventh game. As Venus and Serena Williams saw first-hand, the 6-foot-1 Pliskova goes right at opponents with big, flat groundstrokes and tough-to-handle serves.
“I wasn’t exhausted from yesterday’s match”, she said.
But Kerber, on her first break chance since the opening set, took quick advantage of her opportunity breaking back at 3-3. Williams proved too slow in returning serves, her finest victor coming on a break of Pliskova in the second set. To punctuate winners, Williams turned to her two-handed backhand and swung away.
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However, the night at Flushing Meadows ended up with a jubilant Kerber showing her class to dispose of Wozniacki.
