Expectation has been a prominent theme in the careers of Karolina Pliskova and Aryna Sabalenka. Neither woman has won a major; both have the talent to do so. Sabalenka has been on a tear this year, winning a tour-leading 38 matches and finally venturing beyond the fourth round of a major for the first time at Wimbledon, where she reached the semi-finals. A force of nature when playing at her thunderous best, the Belarusian is widely seen as a potential grand slam champion, but so far she has been unable to put the pieces together. It is a problem that Pliskova, who reached the US Open final in 2016 and then spent the next five years trying to reproduce that level of performance, knows all too well.
Pliskova finally solved the conundrum at Wimbledon – at Sabalenka’s expense – and it was once again the sixth-ranked Czech who stood between Sabalenka and a fourth final of the year in Montreal. Victory would have lifted the woman from Minsk to number two in the world, but experience has its advantages and, while the 29-year-old Pliskova may be the older of the two women by six years, she is also the wiser. It showed. A cerebral and measured performance from Pliskova carried her to a 6-3, 6-4 win, deserved reward for her superior ability to cope with the blustery conditions and adroit tactical approach.
Sabalenka attempted to fire off her usual array of blistering serves and flamethrower forehands, but the wind frequently interfered with her timing, hampering with her ability to get her usual purchase on the ball. That, however, was the least of the top seed’s problems. Pliskova played superbly, disrupting her opponent’s rhythm with intelligent changes of pace and spin, finding the court with 71% of her first serves, and absorbing Sabalenka’s power both from the baseline and on her returns, which were many and varied. Having dropped her serve just five times all week, the Belarusian was broken four times here, her frustration increasingly apparent as her five aces were cancelled out by five double faults, several of which came at critical junctures. Sabalenka was thoroughly fed up by the end, tossing her racket away before offering Pliskova a perfunctory handshake and storming off court. Her reaction was a tribute to the quality of the Czech’s play.
“I think I did a very clinical performance,” said Pliskova, who will contest her third final of the year against Camila Giorgi, a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 winner over Jessica Pegula in the second semi-final. “I have a tendency to go negative a bit, but I think I did great today. It was not easy of course – super windy, especially with her game, the combination of these two things was quite difficult – so it’s not like I was perfect with my game, but I think I did exactly what I needed to win this match today.
“We’ve played a couple of matches and I know she’s a tough opponent. Sometimes you cannot do much about her game because she just plays amazing winners. But of course, I believe I have my own weapons and I think, because I stayed focused pretty much all match today, I didn’t have very much chances and many mistakes, I think that’s why it went quite [a lot] easier than Wimbledon. I’m super happy with the win.”
Well she might be. The pattern of the contest was established as early as the third game, in which Sabalenka was broken after sending two forehands long in quick succession as she struggled to deal with off-pace balls from Pliskova. Spinning in some serves and slamming down others, the fourth seed comfortably consolidated the break, and Sabalenka soon found herself in trouble again, fending off another break point in her next service game after two double-faults. Errors again proved costly for the top seed at 3-5, Sabalenka coughing up another break as she sent a volley wide at deuce before driving the ball long.
The younger woman continued to live dangerously in the second set, saving an early break point with a deep second serve, but had a chance to break in the fifth game and finally made the breakthrough in the seventh, blasting a backhand winner to take Pliskova’s serve. Once again, though, Sabalenka was undone by errors. In the next game, she double-faulted at 15-30 before screwing a backhand wide, and she continued to falter, eventually ending the match with 29 unforced errors.
“She kind of helped me,” said Pliskova of her recovery from a break down in the second set. “She did two double-faults that game, I think. Because I stayed there, I stayed positive, I think I got the break back. That was a super important situation in the match.”
“I think I just used my brain maybe a bit more,” added Pliskova. “It’s not that I would really play amazing tennis here, because every day was a bit windy. I keep having completely different opponents, like playing super slow to super fast.
“I kind of accepted that maybe it’s not going to be the nicest way, how I won this match. So I didn’t try to go for crazy winners. I think maybe she went for too much today, that’s why she was missing so much.”
In Giorgi, Pliskova will face another opponent who likes to open her shoulders. The Italian, who dropped her first set of the week against Pegula, was in jubilant mood after reaching the biggest final of her career.
“It’s amazing,” said Giorgi, who won six games in a row to take the final set. “I’m very happy, because today was a great match, even if in the second set maybe I didn’t play my game. I lost a little bit the rhythm. But then I came back and the third set was, I think, amazing.”