Karolina Pliskova put herself forward as one of the main contenders for the Wimbledon title after an impressive, solid straight sets victory over 2009 Eastbourne champion Caroline Wozniacki in the 2017 Eastbourne final.
It was always going to be difficult for Wozniacki to rediscover the winning feeling from the 2009 version of the event as she played Pliskova in the final, who is starting to find her better tennis on the grass. The Czech No.1 player has already won titles in Nottingham and previously performed well at Eastbourne, but is yet to make an impression at SW19, so will be hoping that this title victory can galvanise her for the following two weeks.
It took five games for the first break point to be created and Pliskova converted to take a *3-2 lead and that was enough to grab the first set against the Dane, 6-4. The second set was a much different set. In the first set, Pliskova served incredibly well. She was finding her spots with precise serves and the most difficult thing for Wozniacki was being able to guess where Pliskova would direct her big serve. More often than not, Pliskova directed most serves and first forehands into the forehand of Wozniacki, where she got a lot of joy out of, especially the serve out wide to the Dane’s forehand.
Wozniacki had chances in the second set, where she will feel that the match could have turned slightly had she come through the vital sixth game of the second set. The former World No.1 missed out on four break points and after Pliskova found a way to get through that game it was obvious that she had the edge going into the conclusion of that particular set.
Wozniacki talked about the importance of that game: “Yeah, i played one bad shot, I feel like, in the whole match and that came in that game where I missed a forehand where I went for it, and it kind of just, yeah, just went away from me a little bit. But at least I went for it. I did the right thing. I just didn’t hit the right shot.”
The Eastbourne winner also felt that getting through that game unscathed actually helped her enormously: “Yeah, I think definitely that was the toughest game in the match. Just happy that I could hold, because it was important for me. I think we were both serving pretty well both sets.”
The newly-crowned Eastbourne winner struck a beautiful forehand down the line winner to get the break for *5-4 then held with considerable ease and comfort to lift her first ever Eastbourne title.
Now Pliskova’s eyes will be firmly on getting that elusive major win in singles. She has never made it past the second round of Wimbledon, but after getting to the semi-finals of Roland-Garros, that really has given her the confidence in the transition to grass. Pliskova has almost used that Roland-Garros semi-final result as evidence that if she can do that well on her least favourite surface, then she should be fine on the grass of Wimbledon. That really has impacted her immensely over this week in Eastbourne.
Like any other title winner the week before a major, many will talk about Pliskova going all the way and I asked her whether this title win adjusts her expectations at Wimbledon: “Not really. I was just, in the beginning of the tournament, I just wanted to play some matches and to see how it goes and to have some hits on grass, especially when I came from Czech, I didn’t practice much on grass.”
She also said: “So I didn’t really expect this start of the grass court season, but it gave me a lot of confidence coming to London. But it’s the same last year. I was also in the final. Didn’t get the trophy but I didn’t do well in Wimbledon, so hopefully, I believe it can change with this trophy this year (smiling).”
A lot can change over the duration of a Grand Slam. Changes in schedule, changes in the way a draw can unravel and also the physical side of things that impact any player, but with this title win Pliskova must be feeling that a Grand Slam triumph is imminent, if not this season, then in one of the majors in the next twelve months.
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