Karolina Pliskova began the 2017 season with her seventh career WTA title Saturday. The 24 year old came out guns blazing in the opening set to outplay Alize Cornet in a 6-0, 6-3 straight sets win to the championship of the Brisbane International.
The two hadn’t crossed back in three years making their second meeting the most critical to start the new season. Cornet faced plenty of adversity but gained a huge pass with the withdraw of fourth seeded Garbine Muguruza who had to retire after five games. The advance to the finals wouldn’t get any easier as the third seed used tremendous attacks on offense to sweep through the competition in her final win over Elina Svitolina to reach the first WTA title match of 2017. The French star won their meeting in 2013 but as the years passed, the competition has increased. She carries more time off the court but certainly had a huge mountain to climb to achieve victory.
The height of it was more astronomical the second Pliskova began playing. Cornet opened service but never saw herself in full control of the game. It turned into a runaway with the French star clearly struggling to gain points. Though she got on the board at times, the Czech star won every game completing the set with a 6-0 rout that took only 19 minutes to complete. Pliskova had impressive stats with a first serve at 50 percent. She landed all her shots on the first and five of seven on the second serve. In that small amount of time, Cornet won five points on her serve while being skunked on the returns.
She didn’t let that happen to start the second which saw things become more lively on each side. Cornet faced Pliskova’s serve but fought to get out front quickly. It worked to her advantage getting a key break to lead for the first time in the match. She quickly saw her opponent regroup quickly and run off with the set again. She pushed out to a 3-1 hold making it look like it would be the only posted win for the French star. She wasn’t out of the running as the fifth became her best fight of the night. Cornet forced deuce on serve and fought through two breaks before holding back the Czech to improve more for her own well being.
The 2016 record of 42 minutes was not going to be broken on the night as Cornet’s push to succeed made its presence known. She took the fifth game but watched her Czech adversary take a step ahead once more. Cornet sat on the verge of defeat quickly but was not ready to surrender the set. She struck back in the eighth but couldn’t hold back Pliskova from the inevitable.
The ninth was a fight for the eventual champ as she played for the match with Cornet still showing battle in her game. She was forced to deuce by Pliskova but held twice on the breaks. It was a change of tide that gave the third seed just the right moment to strike and end the tournament in victory after one hour and six minutes. For the second straight match, Pliskova ended the win with another seven aces launched at Cornet and 19 of 21 points won on the first serve. It was enough power on her end to hold back the admirable French player who gave it what was projected on the day. The honor of winning the first title of the season also came with the notion that the Czech would move into the top five of the WTA standings.
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