Plíšková Sails past Brady and Looks Forward to Quarterfinal

Karolína Plíšková turned the U.S. Open round-of-sixteen match against the home player Jennifer Brady into her own show. She spent just 46 minutes on the court, allowing only a single game to her opponent. In the quarterfinal, she will try to end the New York campaign to another American, Coco Vandeweghe.

Plíšková didn’t play her ideal tennis in the previous matches here at the U.S Open and especially her battle against Zhang Shuai was really dramatic – Karolína even had to face a match point. But against Brady the world number one played perfectly and didn’t let her opponent show anything from her skills. “Almost everything was good. It was so fast I didn’t even manage to do anything wrong,” she said following her 6-1, 6-0 victory.

In this match, Plíšková played with much greater facility than on the days before. “I went through three tense matches. Now it was mainly about tennis. I got myself into the right mode when I choose where I’m going to send a shot or serve. I was enjoying it,” the player with the most aces on the WTA Tour commented after the match.

In the U.S. Open quarterfinal, Plíšková will face both aggressive play and a good serve. On Wednesday, she will play against the American, Coco Vandeweghe, who eliminated Lucie Šafářová in the round of sixteen. “None of the players I’ve met here so far plays so fast,” said Karolína, who won their last encounter in Stuttgart earlier this year.

Karolína Plíšková Fails to Defend U.S. Open Title

Karolína Plíšková’s U.S. Open campaign ended in quarterfinals. The world number one lost to the home player Coco Vandeweghe and will not defend her last year’s final. This also means she will be replaced on the top of the WTA Tour ranking by Garbiñe Muguruza of Spain.

Karolína Plíšková played her match against Coco Vandeweghe under the closed roof at the Arthur Ashe Stadium and lost 6-7, 3-6. The American served perfectly throughout the match and was solid on return as well. Despite that, Karolína had a break point at 5-4, but played the rally too carefully. “If I could get back to this moment, I would play it differently. I should have been more aggressive,” Karolína regretted after the match. In the end, she lost the opening set in the tie-break.

In the second set, Plíšková was again the first one to lose her serve, but managed to break her opponent back immediately. Unfortunately, the Czech lost her serve one more time and in the end couldn’t fend off the third match point she faced at the tournament. “She played one of her best matches of those we’ve played against each other. She made hardly any mistakes,” Plíšková commented after the match.

This year’s U.S. Open semifinals will thus feature four Americans – Vandeweghe will face Madison Keys, while Venus Williams will play against Sloane Stephens. Karolína Plíšková is going to lose her world number one position after eight weeks. Following her elimination in the U.S. Open quarterfinals she is going to be replaced by Muguruza. “I’m glad the U.S. Open is behind me. The pressure and expectations were huge. I believe I’ll be more relaxed on the court now,” Karolína Plíšková said.

Plíšková is now heading to Asia for a series of tournaments, starting in Tokyo on 18th September. The entire season should then culminate for the Czech number one at the WTA Finals in Singapore, for which she is most probably going to qualify.