Karolina Pliskova believes that the Fed Cup title this week-end could help her improve her already proud ranking next year. The 23-year-old Czech star, who is currently ranked World Number 11, won the Prague title and reached five titles including finishing runner-up to Venus Williams at the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai.
The Fed Cup has been the highlight in Pliskova’s young career which was marked by the Australian Open Junir title in 2010 where she defeated Laura Robson. Last August she reached her best ranking of world number 7. Her identical twin sister Krystina won the junior title at Wimbledon in 2010. Karolina won her first titles in 2013 when she won at the Malaysian Open in the singles and in Linz in the doubles together with her sister Krystina. In 2014 she reached two back-to-back finals in Honk Kong and Seoul where she won against Varvara Lepchenko. In 2015 she reached her first Premier-level final in Sydney where she finished runner.up to her compatriot Petra Kvitova before reaching her first ever Grand Slam third round at the Australian Open. Last February Karolina made her debut in the Fed Cup against Canada where she won both her singles matches. She finished runner-up to Carla Suarez Navarro in the Antwerp final and in Dubai to Simona Halep. After reaching the quarter final in Indian Wells the Czech player won her first title of the year in Prague beating her compatriot Lucie Hradecka. During the summer she lost two finals in Birmingham and Stanford against Angelique Kerber.
“I can go a liitle bit higher but it depends on the results and the start of the year. If I am playing good, I can win win those bigger matches and go far in the tournament but sometimes it’s not happening, I will prepare well this year and hopefully be ready for next year”, said Pliskova
Pliskova was the Czech heroine on Sunday when she beat Anastasya Pavlyuchenkova 6-3 6-4 in the second Sunday’s rubber to draw level to 2-2 before teaming up with Barbora Strycova for the win in the decisive rubber match against Elena Vesnina and Anastasya Pavlyuchenkova in three sets.
“I really enjoyed the whole week with the girls and even now this match was just an unbelievable feeling to play here in Prague and I am just really happy that we have the trophy again.”
Czech team captain Petr Pala praised all the players who contributed to the fourth title in five years.
“The girls have done it and I am so happy and proud of them. It was an incredible day for tennis today with a great audience and I think the first match was just excellent. Petra came a bit short but the way she played I think she could only lose to Maria today and the way that Karolina handled it in singles and doubles was just phenomenal. Karolina was competitive against Maria but she was unhappy she lost to her and that was a good sign because she went out to win it and she didn’t. But she was out there in front of big stars for the first time. It helped her. On Sunday she was the best player. She became confident and once she did, she wasn’t afraid”, said Petr Pala
