What to Watch at US Open: New No. 1 Kerber faces Pliskova

Karolina Pliskova, of the Czech Republic, right, greets Serena Williams after winning their semifinal match of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016, in NY.

But she was one of the tour’s in-form players, going into the semi-final after 10 successive wins.

Pliskova may not have 22 grand slam titles behind her, in fact she had previously never been past the third round of a major tournament, but the world number 11 remains a risky prospect.

She also wasn’t having the notion that she was exhausted after playing her quarterfinal match on Wednesday.

While she knows she’ll feel the nerves of her first major final, Pliskova has already weathered the hostile crowds on Arthur Ashe stadium in her victories over the Williams sisters and says she’s ready for anything.

Williams’ 186 weeks at the top of the rankings will come to an end when the new WTA rankings are released the Monday following the US Open, when German Angelique Kerber will take the top spot for the first time.

“It’s just incredible”, Kerber told Garber.

Wozniacki, down at 74 in the world after missing nearly three months of the season with an ankle injury, had refused on the eve of her fifth semi-final in NY to dampen speculation that she was on the brink of announcing her retirement.

It was the second consecutive year she lost in the US Open semi-finals while chasing history – last year she was attempting a rare calendar-year grand slam, but was upset by Roberta Vinci.

It turns out that Williams was suffering from a bad left knee that slowed her down throughout the night. You can not win, 6-2, 6-1, so I wasn’t expecting a match like this.

But Williams, playing in her 46th grand slam quarter-final, would not be shaken and took the only break to go up 3-1 in the decider and then serve out for the win.

Both players excel at outlasting their opponents in long rallies, but against Kerber Wozniacki committed too many unforced errors to keep up. They are both junior grand slam champions and have won 3 double titles together.

“To be now the No. 1 in the world, that was always a dream for me”, she added.

Serena accepted that she did not play well but Pliskova deserved to win. Graf is also the only other German woman to achieve the top ranking. “I just blame that on just mentally thinking about my leg and just not thinking about the shot”.

Kerber holds a narrow 4-3 career edge over Pliskova, but the big-serving Czech won their most recent encounter, in last month’s Cincinnati final. “I wasn’t exhausted from yesterday’s (Wednesday) match”, said Serena.

It is also a place the Williams sisters, with eight U.S. Open singles titles between them, consider home for nearly two decades where rude guests like Pliskova are made to feel unwelcome. “I hope that you guys will support me a lot”, Kerber said.

“I don’t think much really went well today”.