Pliskova Powers Past Konjuh Into U.S. Open Semifinals

September 7, 2016 | By New York Tennis Magazine Staff
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Photo Credit: Garrett Ellwood/USTA/USOpen.org

Karolina Pliskova dismissed Croatian teenager Ana Konjuh in a quick 57 minutes on Wednesday morning, powering her way into the U.S. Open semifinals with a 6-2, 6-2 victory.

Playing in the Grand Slam of her career, the 10th seeded Czech got off to a quick start to shatter the belief in the 18-year old Konjuh, who was also making her Grand Slam quarterfinal debut. Pliskova broke Konjuh in the match’s opening game and never looked back, winning 100 percent of the points on her first serve, and breaking again for 3-0, to win the opening set in just 28 minutes.

“I wasn’t at my best level today for sure, but she was just too good. Her serve is just too good,” said Konjuh. “Today on the court, you know, she found her rhythm and took the opportunities that I gave her.”

Konjuh continued to fight at the beginning of the second set, holding in her first service game, but Pliskova was just too much for her, breaking for a 3-2 lead in the second set, winning the final four games of the set to breeze past Konjuh and into the final four.

“Obviously the title from Cincinnati helped me a lot,” Pliskova said of her confidence and improved play. “I was waiting for the bigger title for a few years so that was the next step. I think just everything is on time. I was practicing hard this year, and even the results in the beginning of this year were not that good as the last year.

I’m happy that I could, you know, play my game in the biggest tournaments.”

In all, Pliskova was just too dominant with her serve, and was able to convert on four of her nine break point chances to control the play in each set. She won 92 percent of her first service points and committed just 12 unforced errors.

“I would say it was better, much better,” Pliskova said of her serve. “At least the percentage. I had quite a lot of points from the first serve. I don’t know if she was a little bit nervous or [if it was because] she was playing a totally different opponent in her last match, so maybe it was different for her and she was not that ready for a big serve.”

Pliskova was a stark contrast to Konjuh’s Round of 16 opponent Agnieszka Radwanska. Despite the defeat though, Konjuh, who won the U.S. Open junior title back in 2013, no doubt enjoyed a breakout run here in the last week.

“But overall, I’m happy with my results here. When I came here I could only imagine playing the quarterfinals. I think it’s been a great tournament,” Konjuh added. “As I said, my season wasn’t great so far, so I’m just really happy to be healthy and on the court and especially competing in the Grand Slams. That’s a big thing for all of us. I’m just looking forward to the next one.”

Pliskova moves into a semifinal matchup with the winner of tonight’s match between top seed Serena Williams and fifth-seed Simona Halep.

American Coco Vandeweghe and Switzerland’s Martina Hingis continued their run in the women’s doubles draw with a 6-1, 6-2 thrashing of 16th seeds Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova on Wednesday to reach the semifinals.  

The pair will be the top-seeded French duo of Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic.

In men’s doubles, the top seeds Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert pushed past Robert Lindstedt and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi 6-3, 7-6(4), setting up a matchup with fourth seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares. 


New York Tennis Magazine Staff
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