World No.11 Karolina Pliskova is now about to crack the Top 10, but she could also collect her first WTA Premier-level title if she manages to get past last year’s finalist Angelique Kerber in Sunday’s title match at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford.
Upset-maker Varvara Lepchenko, who had ousted top seed Caroline Wozniacki from the tournament, was Pliskova’s victim in the semifinals. It was not a straightforward win, as Pliskova gave away a 4-2 lead in the second set and found herself trailing 4-5, before recovering with three straight game wins for a 6-2 7-5 triumph. As for Kerber, Elina Svitolina barely gave her resistance in their semifinal encounter, 6-3 6-1.
Kerber leads Pliskova 3-2 in their head-to-head stats, and the German was the one who won their last match, a marathon in the final of Premier-level Birmingham during this year’s grasscourt stretch.
Additional info: As promised, Women’s Tennis Blog’s photographer Jimmie48 is already at the Rogers Cup. Check out his first photo gallery from Saturday, featuring Victoria Azarenka, Monica Puig, Ajla Tomljanovic,Magdalena Rybarikova, Donna Vekic, and others.
Pliskova is like righty kvitova isn’t she ? big serve, powerful off both the wings more than decent at net. like I said should’ve added her to my top 10 list dang it!!!