Serena Williams Upset at U.S. Open by Karolina Pliskova

With the defeat, Williams’ bid to break the professional-era record for career grand slam titles also came to a halt.

But it will not come easy against Pliskova, who despite her rise up the rankings in the past two years had developed a reputation for underachieving at the majors.

“I’m really happy to be there and even have the chance to play in the final here”, said Pliskova, who took out Venus and Serena Williams en route to her first Grand Slam final.

“I don’t believe it”, Pliskova said on court afterwards. “To be now the No.1 in the world, that was always a dream for me”, she added.

– At 28, she is the oldest player to make her debut at No.1, a record previously held by Jennifer Capriati, who was 25 years, 200 days when she reached No.1 in October 2001. This one goes pretty high on the list, too.

Although Williams injured her left knee earlier in the U.S. Open, she didn’t use it as an excuse for the loss.

The 24-year-old Pliskova also became just the fourth player to beat both Williams sisters at the same Slam after Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis.

“I don’t believe it”, Pliskova said. “First, she has a match here that she’s focused on”.

In three previous main draw appearances at Flushing Meadows, Pliskova, 24, had lost twice in the first round and had a 2-3 win-loss record.

But now she’s on an 11-match winning streak.

“If I’m not used to playing this much then I really should think of something different”.

Germany’s Angelique Kerber moved to the top of the women’s world rankings after beating Caroline Wozniacki to reach the US Open final.

Pliskova claimed it was harder to beat Venus Williams than it was to stun Serena Williams to make the US Open final on Thursday.

It also means Williams’ 3½-year reign at No. 1 in the WTA rankings will end.

In the semi-finals, Pliskova had stunned 6-time victor and favourite Serena Williams, while Kerber defeated Caroline Wozniacki. “I remember double faulting on match point, but I don’t remember the other ones”.

Williams was supposed to be the one to supplant Graf at the Open and log the second-most Grand Slam singles titles at 23.

Now, she is in Saturday’s final.

But watching Williams miss shot after shot – 31 unforced errors in all – one couldn’t help but wonder why.

She clutched at her left hamstring occasionally in the second set and double-faulted to end it.

She said, “Karolina played great today. So I definitely wasn’t exhausted from yesterday’s match at all”.

If anything, the German didn’t appear to show any signs of pressure in regards to the milestone she is about to achieve. None worked. She had her half chances to turn the match around and failed to convert them, then after taking a mini-break in the second set tiebreak with some incredible defence, she had a real opening. “She was so slow”.

“She was not moving at all today”, Williams’ coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, said.