The 25-year-old Czech tennis star Karolina Pliskova secured herself a spot in the last eight stages in New York after dismantling Jennnifer Brady in a bit under 50 minutes of play. The current world No. 1 and 2016 US Open runner-up, Pliskova is trying to keep her spot away from Muguruza or Svitolina's touch. While Muguruza won't accumulate further points as she was ousted by Petra Kvitova in yesterday's session, the young Ukrainian Svitolina is still a threat, and she may face Pliskova in the semis. Seeded fourth in New York, Svitolina will face the American Madison Keys for a place in the quarterfinals.
If she will match last year's result at Flushing Meadows, Pliskova will keep the world No. 1 seat next Monday when the ranking will be updated.
Both Pliskova and Brady fought hard in the previous round
Entering their fourth round encounter, both Karolina Pliskova and Jennifer Brady (91 WTA) had a serious physical toll under their belts. The third round saw Pliskova on the verge of defeat as she had to save a match point against Shuai Zhang (26 WTA). She went on edging the Asian player at the end of three sets that lasted more than two hours.
On the other side, Brady had to deal with a similar scenario as she went through a tricky encounter against Monica Niculescu (57 WTA). Also a three-sets-thriller, the encounter lasted almost two and a half hours and it was decided in a tie-break.
Having no unexpected delays to deal with, the players received a day off, and Karolina Pliskova has recovered pretty well. She went on dominating Brady with her aggressive style of play. Despite serving only three aces throughout the match, Pliskova compensated by hitting 23 winners to only nine unforced errors to crush Brady by 6-1 6-0.
She will face either Coco Vandeweghe or Lucie Safarova next.
A triumph at US Open will provide a solid world No. 1 justification
Criticised for being the world No. 1 without winning at least a Grand Slam tournament, Karolina Pliskova might want to consolidate her last 12-months-consistency by adding the cherry on top- a US Open title.
The win over Brady gives her a 46/ 12 in win/ loss ratio. Moreover, she won three Premier titles in 2017 (Brisbane, Doha and Eastbourne).
What brought her to the summit was that consistency that everyone is talking about lately. Despite not winning too many tournaments or not even some big ones, she went on reaching the highest stages at almost every WTA event she went for. If she'll manage to pull out something special in New York she will make her reign even more legitimate.
