“Aces Queen” Karolina Pliskova has crowned herself “Queen of Stuttgart”. The fifth seeded Czech won the final of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix 7:6 (7:2) 6:4 against the world rankings-16 Coco Vandeweghe. It is Pliskova’s tenth title on the WTA tour – and only her second on clay after her “home coup” in Prague in 2015. In addition to the winning bonus of 113,060 euros, it is allowed to take a red sports car with 365 hp from the main sponsor.
By Ulrike Weinrich from Stuttgart
After 1:56 hours, Pliskova turned her first match point in the Porsche Arena, which was sold out with 4500 spectators. This was in return for the defeat against Vandeweghe in the quarter-finals of the 2017 US Open. And Pliskova crowned a two-week stay in Stuttgart. Exactly a week earlier, she had won (4:1) with the Czech team in the same spot against hosts Germany and made it to the Fed Cup final perfectly.
But also Vandeweghe, who only made it into the main field through a so-called Top-20 Wildcard, can consider the week in the Swabian metropolis a great success. The power player from California (“Every participation of me in a sand court tournament is one too many”) has not yet been able to build up a “love relationship” to the red ashes…maybe now!
But especially Pliskova, Flushing Meadows finalist from 2016, proved impressively that she can play for titles on any surface. However, the underground in the hall of Stuttgart is much faster than at the typical ash events in Madrid (from 6 May), Rome (from 13 May) or even at the French Open in Paris (from 21 May).
The final developed into the hoped-for exciting exchange of blows, which was initially marked by many direct points to the delight of the audience. And not least because of the serve strength of the two protagonists. Pliskova made her first service game right away, but the 1.86-metre tall Czech made up for her false start shortly afterwards when she broke Vandeweghe to 2:2.
The sympathies in the arena were distributed: Pliskova, who defeated 452 aces in 68 games as “Queen of Aces” last season, has a connection to Germany. Together with her twin sister Kristyna and her parents, she once lived in Wolfsburg for two years as a child and played TC Fallersleben.
But also for New York semi-finalist Vandeweghe, the event was no tournament like any other. As her mother Taura told her these days via text message, the great-grandmother of the US-American comes from Pforzheim – about 50 kilometres from Stuttgart. “Funny, isn’t it?”, said the Fed Cup player with the blond ponytail and grinned.
It was not surprising that the decision was made in the first set in the tiebreak. Vandeweghe led 2-1, but then lost six points in a row. With a forehand winner Pliskova won the first run after 58 minutes.
Vandeweghe had their coach Pat Cash, Australian Wimbledon winner of 1987, come to court at the next change of sides. Shortly afterwards, the 26-year-old was unlucky when she slipped and shortly afterwards had to let herself be taped on her little finger. Pliskova, who had not lost a single point in the second set of her semi-final against the Estonian Anett Kontaveit (6:4, 6:2) on her own serve, also accepted this stoically.
Pliskova then turned into the home stretch of the winning road when Vandeweghe took over the service for her 3-2 lead. Born in New York, she showed her temperament once again: after a missed chance to break, she smashed her racket. Without the hoped-for “hello effect”. Pliskova stumbled again with a 5:2 lead and had her opponent shortened to 4:5. But in the end, the queen of aces (11 aces in the final) closed the sack.
The only drawback for the new Stuttgart queen: a special duel will take place at the home tournament in Prague starting Monday. Top seeded Karolina will face her twin sister Kristyna in the first round. So far it is 4:4 in the duels, but on Sunday she was happy about her unexpected sand-coup.