Will Karolina Pliskova make it past the world number one to the semi-finals?

The biggest event on the WTA circuit this week is the Stuttgart tournament. The oldest indoor tennis tournament in the world for women has reached the quarterfinals and thanks to Karolina Pliskova, the Czech Republic is also represented.

At first glance, the Czech number three has a tough task ahead of her. Her opponent, Iga Swiatekova, has lost only three times since this year’s Australian Open, twice to Elena Rybakina, whose form not many women on the circuit can match.

the 31-year-old Czech is looking to return to the top ten of the WTA rankings this year, where she has basked for eight long years. However, she last played a semifinal in August 2022 in Toronto on a hard surface. Although clay is not her favourite surface, she has had success on it too and incidentally it was in Stuttgart that she triumphed 5 years ago.

Today’s duel will undoubtedly show if she is on the way to more success this year. At the current tournament in the sixth largest German city, the native of Louny has gone through matches as different as night and day.

In the first round, she defeated world number nine Maria Sakkari (6-2, 6-3) after 72 minutes, only to fight hard in the following round to reach today’s quarter-finals by winning the third set tiebreak against Croatia’s Donna Vekić (23rd in the rankings). She advanced by taking advantage of the third match point after almost two and a half hours of play.

The world number one’s path to today’s match was easier. After a free draw in the first round, she defeated China’s Qinwen Zheng (25th in the world) rather smoothly, getting the decisive break in the long ninth game of the second set after three break points.

Swiatek’s style is considered almost lethal for Pliskova. Even a strong serve (22 aces in the previous two matches) should not be enough for the Czech to overcome the brilliant play of the Pole, who is also defending her championship here from last year. The 2021 rematch speaks more than clearly. The Pole gave our tennis player two canaries and won the tournament in Rome, also on clay.

Whether the next chapter of their matches will be more successful for the Czech colours should be clear this evening, the match is the highlight of today’s quarterfinal programme and is scheduled from 18:30.

Source