At the age of 29, five years after reaching her one and only grand slam final at the US Open, Karolina Pliskova must have wondered if she would ever reach another. On Tuesday, when she reached the last four at Wimbledon for the first time in her career, the Czech seemed satisfied just to have completed a full set of semi-final appearances at all four majors. It is ironic, then, that only a week after dropping out of the top 10 for the first time in nearly four and a half years, Pliskova should find herself in the second major final of her career after seeing off Aryna Sabalenka, the number two seed, with a courageous 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory.
If she is to take the final step and finally shake off the unwanted tag of being arguably the best active player never to have won a slam, Pliskova will have to find a way past Ashleigh Barty, the world No 1, who ended Angelique Kerber’s hopes of a second Wimbledon title with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) victory. At this stage, anything looks possible. Pliskova has often flattered to deceive, but rarely has she looked more in control of her game or her emotions. Against an opponent of fearsome power and intensity, the former world No 1 rose to the occasion magnificently, climbing a mental mountain to shrug off the disappointment of losing an opening set in which she was repeatedly thwarted by Sabalenka’s thunderbolt serves and crashing groundstrokes.
“Coming into this tournament, the dream was to make the second week, because I was not in the second week [of a slam] for a while,” said Pliskova. “I never thought about maybe going to the final. After losing the first set, I thought it was going to be super tough to win this match. Then to win two sets in a row with the way how she was serving – I think she was serving incredible, all my chances she just put amazing serves in. I’m super proud about the way I handled the situation out there, the second and third set, and that I served out the match.”
A showdown between two of the most powerful servers in the women’s game was never likely to produce lengthy rallies, and the rat-a-tat rhythm of the contest was established as early as the opening game. When Sabalenka steps up to the line, she wields the racket with the gleeful abandon of a lumberjack setting about a particularly stubborn ironwood. The Belarusian bookended her opening service game with a pair of untouchable deliveries; Pliskova, who started the match with a haul of 40 aces from 45 service games at the Championships, did not take long to start making a similar impact. By the afternoon’s end, the two women would have 32 aces between them, a tournament record.
With chances to break at a premium, much would depend on who could take their opportunities. In that regard, the story of the first set was a simple one. Pliskova held eight break points in all – including three in a row with Sabalenka trailing 0-40 in the 10th game – and was thwarted, chiefly by the monstrous serving of her opponent, on each occasion. Sabalenka mustered just a single chance, on the final point of the set – and Pliskova obligingly double-faulted.
“I had so many chances in the first set,” said Pliskova. “It’s not like I would do something really wrong. I thought especially the last game I could do much better. Not only the double fault, I had two easy shots early in the game. I think I was getting too frustrated about [the fact] that I didn’t take the chances I had on her serve.”
Having dropped her first set of the Championships, Pliskova’s hopes now hinged on whether she could extricate herself from a mental black hole of her own making. The Czech had cut a frustrated figure after failing to break at 5-5, throwing her racket to the turf in frustration. The Pliskova of old might have folded. But the Czech has found fresh self-belief since hiring Sascha Bajin, the former coach of Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams, at the end of last year. Her results have not always shown it, but she has repeatedly insisted that a partnership forged with the intention of improving her performance at the majors is working well, and evidence of her improved mentality came in the fifth game when Pliskova, helped by a crunching backhand return winner, broke to love. She consolidated the hold in emphatic fashion, slamming down three consecutive aces, and recovered brilliantly from 0-30 down in the 10th game to serve out a set in which she hit 15 winners and made just five unforced errors.
Pliskova sustained her momentum into the decider, retrieving brilliantly to break in the opening game, and served out comfortably for the remainder of the match. She slammed down an ace on her first match point to book a Saturday afternoon appointment with Barty.
“It’s a final,” she reflected. “Anything can happen. I know she has a grand slam, but also for her it’s the first Wimbledon final. I think we both have good chances. It’s going to be hopefully a good match to watch as well because with her it’s always interesting. We’re going to see what’s going to happen.”