By Chris Oddo | Wednesday June 7, 2017
Karolina Pliskova ended the run of Caroline Garcia and placed herself within one win of claiming the No.1 ranking on Wednesday in Paris.
Photo Source: Julian Finney/Getty
Not known for clay prowess, Karolina Pliskova has made it abundantly clear that she can win on any surface in Paris during the Roland Garros fortnight. The 25-year-old reached her second career Grand Slam semifinal with a 7-6(3), 6-4 win over France’s Caroline Garcia on Wednesday to set a semifinal clash with No.3-seeded Simona Halep.
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Pliskova had never been past the second round at Roland Garros until this year but her run of five in a row in Paris this week has improved her lifetime record at the French Open to 7-5.
"Somehow I'm just winning and today I can finally say I felt a little bit better on the court compared to the last maches," Pliskova said. "I think my serve was quite good today -- defiinitely a lot of free points from the serve, a few aces as well -- I think it was the key."
Garcia was down a break early in set one but rallied to level when she cracked a forehand winner to draw even at 5-all in set one.
But Pliskova reeled off the final four points of the breaker to take the opening set.
The pair played it close in the second set as well, but it was Pliskova who earned two match points with Garcia serving to stay alive at 4-5, and she converted the first with a forehand winner.
Pliskova can climb to the top of the WTA’s rankings with a win over Halep, but Halep too has a chance to become No.1 at week’s end. If the Romanian wins the title she’ll become the new No.1 and if she reaches the final and falls, Angelique Kerber will stay on top.
It makes for an interesting storyline to focus on, but both players are surely eager to put aside talk ahead of Thursday’s battle.
Halep leads Pliskova 4-1 in their lifetime head-to-head, but the pair have yet to meet on clay.