Former world number one Karolina Pliskova played her way into the semi-finals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix with a late night finish.
By Florian Goosmann from Stuttgart
While there was little tennis in the Porsche Arena on Thursday evening – Angelique Kerber and Garbine Muguruza had given up their matches after the first set – on Friday it went even longer. Shortly after midnight, Karolina Pliskova turned her first match point against Yelena Ostapenko and was the last player to reach the semi-finals in Stuttgart. Previously Anett Kontaveit from Estonia had taken the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova out of the tournament in a match lasting almost three hours.
In the offensive duel between Ostapenko and Pliskova, the French Open winner got off to a better start. Ostapenko quickly took a 3-0 lead but equalized in the middle of the set; at 6-5, Pliskova again lost the serve, this time to zero – and to the set win.
But the Czech did not get up and took the service advantage to 6:5 in the second round and used her third set point.
In set three, the 26-year-old then took a 4-2 lead. At 5-4, Ostapenko had two more break chances, which Pliskova fought off with an ace and a fierce “Come on!” as well as a nice serve-backhand combination. Shortly afterwards, she made it to the semi-finals with a service winner. Ostapenko denied referee Mariana Alves a handshake shortly before after a controversial decision on a repetition that had not been given.
Pliskova got 14 aces – and a total of 28 winners in 21 unforced mistakes, Ostapenko made 50 winning strokes in 37 Unforced Errors on the other side.
“We waited so long, it was a mental struggle,” said Pliskova. “In the end, my serve helped me.” After the late end she wanted to do her best to be ready for the next match.
This will be played by Pliskova against Anett Kontaveit on Saturday at 6.30 pm. Already at 3.50 pm CoCo Vandeweghe and Caroline Garcia will play the first place in the final.
What is certain is that there will be a new winner of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix: All four semi-finalists had never reached the final weekend in Stuttgart before.
Click here for the individual tableau of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix