Top seed Karolina Pliskova has criticised her own campaign at the final grand slam of the year after crashing out of the US Open.
Pliskova’s dream of a first major title at Flushing Meadows was destroyed by Coco Vandeweghe, who prevailed in straight sets. It means that the Czech will lose her No.1 spot next week to Garbine Muguruza, who will become only the second Spanish woman in history to top the rankings.
“I think overall now I can say I was not playing my best tennis this tournament. Still, l made it to the quarter-finals, which is pretty good, I think. I think with the tennis, you can not always get that far in the tournament.” Said Pliskova.
The past two weeks in New York have been a roller coaster encounter for the 25-year-old. In both the second and third rounds she battled back from a set down, saving a match point against China’s Zhang Shuai. After that, she produced her most comprehensive win for over two years by crushing Nicole Gibbs 6-1, 6-0.
Once again falling short in a grand slam tournament, Pliskova is left trying to pinpoint where it all went wrong. For her she blames her own high expectations for the downfall. At the tournament she was required to reach the final to have a chance of maintaining her No.1 ranking.
“I think I had quite high expectations, and obviously I knew I had quite okay draw, so there was nobody, like, unbeatable for me.” She explained. ”Even this match (against Vandeweghe) today was not like, without chance, so maybe I put too much expectation on myself.”
There appears to be no love loss over her removal from the top of the rankings, just frustration with her game. The 2016 US Open finalist spent almost two months at world No.1, becoming the first woman from her country to do so.
“I don’t care. I don’t think something is going to change if you are No. 2. I don’t see any difference between this. So for me, nothing changes.” The Czech commented about the loss of her position.
Pliskova has reached the quarter-finals or better at three out of the four grand slams this year. Heading into the Asian Swing, she already has a trio of titles under her belt from this season.
