Pliskova in her biggest phase since breaking her arm? She’s mowing down one favourite after another in Toronto!

Five Czech players competed at the WTA 1000 tournament in Toronto. The first round was also the last for 4 of them. Krejcikova, Martincova, Kvitova and Bouzkova finished in the opening duel. Only Karolina Pliskova made it through to the next part of the bracket and it seems that she intends to balance the lack of quantity with sufficient quality.

In the first round she took on her compatriot Barbora Krejcikova, whom she defeated 2:0 in sets 6:3 and 6:4. In the second round, fate got in the way of Amanda Anisimova from the USA. This duel could be seen by the audience on 3.8. at the tournament in San Jose and the home player came out victorious.

Karolina had something to return the favour in Canada and she did. And she did it in style. She blew her opponent off the court twice 6::1 in 54 minutes of play. In the eighth round another difficult obstacle awaited the Czech number one, this time the Greek Maria Sakkari.

She is a world number four and, like Pliskova, she suits the hard surface thanks to her power game. The match promised to be a great fight and that was confirmed. In the first set, Karolina followed up her match with Anisimova and again registered a 6:1 result. The second set went to a shortened game and the Greek player was happier.

The Czech managed the final set better, 6::3, and advanced to the top 8. In the quarter-finals, China’s Qinwen Zheng awaits Pliskova. Interestingly, the Czech will be the favourite in this match.

Krejcikova was a slight favourite in the first round, but Pliskova managed to advance at odds of 1.94. In the second round against Anisimova even 2.54 and against Sakkari 2.23. Karolina will play her duel for the semifinals on Saturday night at 2:30 and enters the match as the odds-on favourite. The odds for her to win are 1.79.

Finally, I’ll mention other interesting results from the tournament without a Czech track. A lot of favourites are already out of the game. The main surprise is undoubtedly the elimination of the seeded and world number one, Iga Swiatek of Poland. She was stopped in the eighth round by Beatriz Haddad Maia after a three-set battle.

The player from the other end of the field, the world number two, Anett Kontaveit, has also already said goodbye to the tournament, as she finished on Jill Teichmann’s racket in the second round. At the same stage of the tournament, Ons Jabeur also abandoned her match.

Many players who were grinding their teeth for the title are already out of the game. Pliskova herself managed to knock some of them out. The door to success is definitely open. All indications are that Karolina is in her best form since her serious hand injury last December.