Karolina Pliskova played one of the most epic matches with Caroline Wozniacki at the Rogers Cup Friday afternoon. The two superstars of the sport went the distance in a quadruple rain delayed match with the former number one defeated the current number one 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-4 on Centre Court at the Aviva Tennis Centre in Toronto. Both combined for 73 winners and 221 points in a very thrilling match that spanned nearly five hours in time.
The Dane plays another tough match against the newly crowned world number one player. She has defeated her once but lost two in finals. The Czech has been in motion in her first tournament since Wimbledon where she finished on top of the ranks. She took down Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the opening round before getting a quick pass against Naomi Osaka. With her first big obstacle, the pressure would be on the 25-year-old to keep her winning ways this season against a former number one in a fight for a semifinals appearance.
She put together a sizable lead against Wozniacki creating a three-game winning streak with her own game taking fine shape. She was flawless on the second serve that assisted in troubling the Dane on returns winning just two of six. Wozniacki put together a tremendous fight in the fourth trying to secure the hold of serve. The 27-year-old gained the advantage twice and before going for the third, rain fell once more causing her to stop.
The two got into a discussion about playing the point while the rain came down causing Wozniacki to argue about the safety of playing while it rained. It was the second delay to come in their match lasting less than 20 minutes. When play resumed, the former number one secured the victory on third chance to end Pliskova’s winning streak. The top seed rallied back on serve to get back to her way of success.
She reached 5-1 on Wozniacki’s troubling service in which she racked up the errors and a double fault to end it. When it looked as if she would fall out of the first set, Wozniacki battled against Pliskova on the ball to grab another victory. It was just in time as the rain fell once again with the court staff wiping down the lines waiting for a clear moment to return to play. Wozniacki began the eighth but after two points to her favor, she stopped as the rain fell once more. The fans yelled for the Dane to play but her concerns about hurting herself were more important than continuing the action.
Another short delay passed before they got back into the eighth with Wozniacki up 30-0. She finished off the serve with a good hold to sit two games down. The fight to lock down the set came in the ninth as Wozniacki sought the break point while the Czech wanted to end it. They went two breaks but in the end, it was just another comeback for Wozniacki to overcome her deficit completely.
She pulled off the win that leveled the score followed by a huge break that frustrated Pliskova tremendously. She watched as the former number one rallied all the way back and took the lead in the 11th with an opportunity to put the set away for herself. It took an hour and 15 minutes to complete with a real push from Wozniacki who benefitted from the rain delay to help lower the unforced errors and strengthen the serve.
With nothing more to be done about the past, the world number one put together an impressive service hold that gave her confidence to bring the heat as the set went by. Wozniacki was still on the right side of the ball keeping the service hold on the mark. They remained on serve through six games with the Czech still under pressure to remain focused.
She came through rallying back to deuce with Wozniacki before capturing the key point to stay on pace in the seventh. It came down to whether Wozniacki could match that of her opponent. Both Wozniacki and Pliskova didn’t give either one an inch of opportunity to overtake the other in the set which went to the brink of a tiebreaker. It turned into a game changer that occurred after six points being elapsed where the Czech fired off winners to gain the lead and never looked back. She took the set in 57 minutes in what was a real race to the finish leading the third to be a dramatic finish.
The pace remained firm with both Wozniacki and Pliskova trading off wins to keep the serve going. It wasn’t until the fifth that the world number one broke the Dane for the first time since 4-1 in the opening set. With things slightly changed, it left the door open for her to counteract Wozniacki with the ball in hand. Pliskova consolidated her success to take the sixth and open the gap in her favor with two to go.
Wozniacki struck back to get into the lead over her opponent but soon found that it was again even. Her moment came in the ninth when she found a way to overtake Pliskova on serve to stand at 5-4 with the Czech serving to stay in the match. She felt the pressure more than ever to the point where errors showed up and the wrong moment. It brought the Dane to two match points winning it on a lobbed error into the net to bring a conclusion to a very long two hour and 58 odyssey.
“I just kept fighting against her,” Wozniacki said after the match. “She was playing extremely well in that first set, especially in the beginning and I didn’t feel like I was playing badly but she was just over powering me and rain delays have been a great sign so it meant that I was supposed to win today.”
It’s very special,” she said about the win against the world number one. “Karolina has had an incredible year and we have all these tough battles and she’s the best player in the world and its really special to beat her and fun to play out here.” She won’t get a lot of time to rest as she plans to Saturday’s semifinal against either Sloane Stephens or Lucie Safarova.
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