World No. 6 Caroline Wozniacki said after her victory over newly minted world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova on Friday at the Rogers Cup that she wasn’t bothered by their marathon match because she has run a marathon before.
It was probably good training.
Wozniacki exacted a bit of revenge on Pliskova by outlasting her Czech opponent 7-5, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4 during a match that, all said and done, took five hours to complete, with almost three of those hours coming in on-court action.
“It was definitely a little easier,” Wozniacki said in comparing her victory over Pliskova at the Aviva Centre to running a marathon.
“Both are fun, both are different. Obviously, this is my job and this is what I do, and I kind of know what to expect.”
Pliskova, meanwhile, wasn’t exactly blaming the rain on her loss to her Danish opponent, who she has beaten twice in finals this season (at Doha and Eastbourne), but she definitely hinted at it.
After their match started a full two hours late due to inclement weather, Pliskova, playing in her first tournament as No. 1, stormed out to a 3-0 lead in the first set. Then the rain came down again and the two players had to leave the court. While the subsequent delays didn’t last too long and Pliskova managed to go ahead 5-1, she never quite looked herself again. Missed overhand smashes, forehands going long or into the net, a shaky first serve, it all added up to a victory for former world No. 1 Wozniacki.
“I felt okay after the first two breaks, but after the third one (when she was up 4-1) I started to feel a little tight,” Pliskova said. “Going on the court and off the court, having some kind of warmups before I went on the court just was not enough. After the last break, I felt a little bit tight and tired overall.”
Not that anything should be taken away from Wozniacki, who dropped her first set of the tournament. She played well and made adjustments where necessary.
“I thought she started off really strongly and was attacking and playing really, really well,” Wozniacki said of Pliskova. “After that, I feel like I stepped a little bit closer to the line just to try and take away a little bit of time. Once I kind of got on a roll, I started serving better. But other than that, I just tried to stay steady, tried to take the ball on the rise and tried to stay aggressive, on my serves, too.”
Missioned accomplished there.
But Pliskova had 44 unforced errors and that usually isn’t good enough to win in tennis.
Wozniacki, who had a point when she said after that they were both playing in the same conditions, reeled off six straight games to take the first set, and Pliskova was clearly frustrated.
With the first set tied 5-5, she slammed her racket to the ground after failing to go after a shot she thought was wide. It wasn’t, it gave Wozniacki, who won this tournament in 2010, a 6-5 edge and the eventual set victory.
Pliskova forced a third set with a precision backhand down the line to win the tiebreaker in the second. And then when it seemed like she might prevail up 4-2 in the third, Wozniacki came back.
“I think the game was very open at 4-2,” Pliskova said. “So if I would break her again, I think it was few good rallies where I could, you know, play a different way. I think that was maybe the key in the third set because then, overall, I didn’t play well, but she just put everything back, even my serves, even some of the ground strokes. So it was tough for me to close it.”
Their match wasn’t the only one affected by the rain.
Sloane Stephens’ afternoon tilt against Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic had to be moved from centre court to the grandstand after the Wozniacki-Pliskova match ran so late. Stephens, a former world No. 11 who has slid all the way down to No. 934 after missing 11 months due to a foot injury, was able to dispose of No. 41 Safarova 6-2, 1-6, 7-5 just before the skies opened up again at night.
This is just the third tournament for the Florida-born Stephens since returning from the injury and she said she was pleased by the result.
“Last week (in the Bank of the West Classic), I was just hoping to win a match at some point and beat someone, so I’ve turned it around pretty quickly and I can be proud of that. But there’s still a lot of work to be done,” said Stephens, who will now face Wozniacki in the semifinals on Saturday.
The other semifinal was still to be determined.
Wimbledon’s Spanish winner and world No. 4 Garbine Muguruza’s match against Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine was suspended by rain, while last year’s winner in Montreal, Simona Halep the world No. 2 from Romania, has yet to step on the court against world No. 21 Caroline Garcia of France. Both matches were postponed to Saturday morning by the rain.
