If Karolina Pliskova is finally to win the grand slam title her talent demands, the renascent Czech will surely need to find a way to make life easier for herself. Having carried the momentum she established at Wimbledon into her summer hard court campaign, Pliskova opened her US Open challenge with a 6-3, 6-4 win over American wildcard Caty McNally that was less straightforward than the scoreline might imply. Some moments showcased the qualities that could win Pliskova the US Open; others highlighted the chinks in her armour that could prove costly in her bid to land a first major.
On the plus side, the Czech looks thoroughly at home at Flushing Meadows, where she was a finalist five years ago and where the slick, fast surface feels tailor-made for her game. For the first six games, Pliskova was imperious, her serving immense, her depth off the ground immaculate; it was all McNally could do just to get on the scoreboard. When Pliskova is in full flight like this, her lack of a grand slam title seems preposterous, an inexplicable aberration.
Serving at 5-1, however, Pliskova showed the other side of her game: a damaging tendency to abruptly lose focus and intensity. It is a habit that has often proved costly for the Czech, most notably five years ago in the final, where she led Angelique Keber 3-1 in the decider only to allow the German back in with a flurry of errors.
The effect here wasn’t quite so dramatic; McNally, a 19-year-old ranked 130, is no Kerber. But the American’s bold returning and willingness to move up the court – the legacy of a promising doubles partnership with Coco Gauff that has already yielded two Australian Open quarter-finals – did catch Pliskova off guard. Some lacklustre footwork by the fourth seed was compounded by a double fault as she dropped serve for the first time, and in the next game a series of wayward forehands allowed McNally make up further ground. Pliskova steadied the ship at 5-3, serving out the set in authoritative fashion, but such lapses could prove costly against more experienced opposition.
The second set developed along similar lines, Pliskova racing to a 3-0 lead before a lackadaisical service game gave McNally a foothold in the set. The teenager did not require a second invitation. Defending brilliantly, throwing herself at her returns and making her way to the net whenever she could, McNally came storming back to level the set, again forcing Pliskova to raise her level. That she was able to do so, however, seeing out the contest for the loss of just one more game, speaks volumes about her recent renaissance. Pliskova has not wanted for match play of late, and perhaps the confidence she derived from her run to the Wimbledon final – which she has taken into the North American hard court swing, making the final in Montreal and the last four in Cincinnati – has given her the belief that her game will be there when she needs it.
Not that Pliskova saw it that way. The Czech found the court with just 57% of her first serves and hit six double faults, expressing disappointment afterwards about the quality of her delivery. “I started really well, then lost my focus a little bit at the end of the first set and gave her some easy mistakes,” she said at courtside. “I think she really started to play much better in the second set, but I think my serve was not really there today. It would be much easier if I can serve a bit better.”
Pliskova has characterised her game as a battle between her inner perfectionist and the fact that her first-strike brand of tennis makes mistakes inevitable. That perhaps explains why there often appears to be no middle ground in her game between coruscating winners and unsightly unforced errors. The balance has been steadily improving under her coach Sascha Bajin, however, and although the German is not with her in New York due to visa difficulties, she speaks to him daily. Temporarily under the wing of the former Czech doubles specialist Leos Friedl, who is implementing Bajin’s coaching regime in his absence, Pliskova will be a major contender for the title if she hits upon the right formula at Flushing Meadows.