Tennis player Karolina Pliskova described the round of 16 in the US Open as one of the best matches of the season. The 22nd player of the tournament beat two-time Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenkova, 7:5, 6:7, 6:2 and reached the top eight after a year on concrete courts in New York.
The campaign so far is partially making up for Pliskova’s unsuccessful year, and she believes she has a chance of beating another Belarusian, Arina Sabalenkova, in her semi-final fight.
“Performing at the US Open will of course change the outlook for the season a little,” Pliskova said with a smile. “This year has been a disaster for me for a long time. Now it will be less catastrophic, no matter what happens.”
He added, “I played a few matches in the summer that gave me confidence. And it decides everything. Professional women do not forget to play tennis, all you have to do is calm down, which is easier to do after several successful wins and triples.” He reached the final of the US Open in 2016.
The duel with Azarenkova was one of them. In the more than three-hour battle between the former world number one, Pliskova played 53 winning points and avoided 11 of 14 break points.
Although she lost the second set in the tiebreak, she dominated the development in the third set. She was 100% in transmission and added a break twice. Three years older, they beat Belarus for the fifth time out of nine matches and for the second time in a row.
“It was difficult. I didn’t expect it to be easier. There weren’t too many unforced errors from either side and we had to win everything,” Pliskova said.
“It was also a physical effort,” she said. “It just wasn’t right to serve or shoot. I had to play and move. I’m glad I managed the third set in such a good shape.”
Although she could not train for a week before the US Open due to a leg injury, she won her third duel from three sets. In total, this year she managed 12 of the 17 matches that reached the decider.
“This is also important for the upcoming matches. If you are in a worse state of mind at the moment, you have lost the third set or you have lost the start. And then it is difficult to catch such a player. However, I was calm and I felt good physically,” she confirmed.
“The match is fine now and by today I’ll be fine. We have time to recover a bit. Obviously when it gets added up at the end of the tournament it’s going to show up somewhere, but we’re all at such a good physical level that it shouldn’t be a problem at all. “.
Citizen Loun is witnessing the best Grand Slam of the season. She was eliminated in the second round at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, and did not start at the Australian Open due to a broken wrist. After Petra Kvitova was eliminated, it was the last Czech participation in the singles. “I’m playing well, maybe even better than last year,” he compared Pliskova.
She reached her tenth Grand Slam quarter-final and fifth at the US Open. In the fight for promotion to the top four, she will face Sabalenkova. Last year’s semi-finalist and sixth player in the world turned out to be a showdown against American Danielle Collins.
The second highest ranked Czech woman in the WTA world rankings is believed.
