Karolina Pliskova cruised through Garbine Muguruza 6-1, 6-3, to get through to one of the biggest finals of her career at the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati. Pliskova is looking to succeed Serena Williams as the winner of this tournament. She will face either Angelique Kerber or Simona Halep in tomorrow’s final.
Pliskova led 2-1 in her previous head-to-head matches against Muguruza. The Czech player prevailed over her Spanish rival twice when they met in 2015 in Dubai and Indian Wells but since then Muguruza has progressed to Grand Slam champion at Roland Garros in 2016. In contrast Pliskova has never reached the second week in any grand slam tournament.
Pliskova came into the Cincinnati tournament ranked number 17 but will move up to number 16 by reaching the semifinals in this tournament. The 2015 Fed Cup champion clinched her second win against a top-10 player this year after beating Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets in yesterday’s quarter finals.
The Czech player broke for the first time in the third game to 30. She rallied from 15-40 to hold her service game at deuce before getting a double break to race out to a 4-1 lead as Muguruza made a double fault. After holding her service game to love she fought back from 0-30 to break serve for the third time in the opening set at deuce as Muguruza made two consecutive double faults to close out the first set 6-1 in just 25 minutes. Pliskova won 71 percent of her first serve points.
The second set went on serve in the first four games before Muguruza got her first break of the match to take a 3-2 lead at deuce, but Pliskova broke straight back in the next game to draw level to 3-3 and held her service game at deuce. Pliskova got another break in the eighth game and served out for the match in the next game.
Pliskova hit 17 winners to 17 unforced errors and fired 5 aces. On the contrary Muguruza struck 7 winners to 23 unforced errors. The Czech player will now play in her second premier 5 final after Dubai.
“I am really happy with the win. It was one of my best matches so far during the tournament. It wasn’t easy, because the wind was really tricky and the conditions were tough today“, said Pliskova.
