Karolína Plíšková
Karolína Plíšková is a Czech professional tennis player. She is a former world No. 1, top-ranked by the Women's Tennis Association in July 2017.
Plíšková has won 16 singles and five doubles titles on the WTA tour, as well as 10 singles and six doubles titles on the ITF Circuit. On 31 October 2016, she peaked at world No. 11 in the doubles rankings.
She reached her first and, as of today, only Grand Slam final at the 2016 US Open, where she was runner-up to Angelique Kerber in three sets. As a junior, Plíšková won the girls' singles event at the 2010 Australian Open, defeating Laura Robson in the final. She has also played for the Czech Republic in Fed Cup competition.
Personal life
Plíšková was born in Louny to Radek Plíšek and Martina Plíšková, and has an identical twin sister, Kristýna, who is two minutes older and is also a tennis player.She currently lives in Monte Carlo. In 2018 she married her boyfriend Michal Hrdlička. As she decided to take his last name, her present official name is Karolína Hrdličková.
Career
2010
Karolína Plíšková won Australian Open junior title, defeating Laura Robson in the girls' final.2012
Plíšková played her first senior Grand Slam tournament main draw at the 2012 French Open. To qualify, she defeated Dia Evtimova, Tamaryn Hendler and Laura Robson. She lost in the first round to world No. 8, Marion Bartoli, in straight sets.2013: First WTA title
Plíšková started the year in Brisbane International. She however lost to Olga Puchkova in the first round in two sets. Then in her next tournament in Sydney she qualified, beating Alexandra Panova, Irina Falconi and Estrella Cabeza Candela. In the first round she lost to the third seed, Sara Errani.Plíšková won her maiden WTA Tour title at the Malaysian Open. She defeated several seeded players to reach the final against the American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, defeating her in three sets.
At the Generali Ladies Linz in October, Plíšková won her first WTA title in doubles alongside sister Kristýna, becoming the first set of twins in history to win a doubles title together on the tour.
2014: Breakthrough
2014 was a breakthrough year for Plíšková. After consecutive second-round finishes in Auckland and at the Australian Open, she reached her second career WTA tour final in Pattaya City, defeating top-50 players Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sorana Cîrstea before losing to Ekaterina Makarova in the final. She then reached the third round of Indian Wells, the quarterfinals of the Monterrey Open and the semifinals in Kuala Lumpur between March and April. In May, she reached her third career final in Nuremberg, losing to second seed Eugenie Bouchard in three sets. She broke into the top-50 in July and defeated world number 9 Ana Ivanovic in the second round of the US Open. After playing in America, she reached two finals in two consecutive weeks – in Hong Kong, where she lost to Sabine Lisicki, and in Seoul, which she won, defeating Varvara Lepchenko in the final to take her second career title. A third overall title in Linz ensured Plíšková finished the year ranked world No. 24.As an alternate, Plíšková made a round-robin appearance at the season-closing Tournament of Champions, in lieu of top seed Ekaterina Makarova, losing her sole match against Flavia Pennetta of Italy.
After reaching five finals and winning two of them, and appearing to a broader public at the US Open with a big win over a former world No. 1, 2014 was a breakthrough year for Plíšková. She leaped from world No. 67 to 24.
2015: Top-10 debut
Plíšková began her year at the Brisbane International where she defeated former world No. 1 and two-time Grand Slam champion, Victoria Azarenka, in the first round before losing in the second. She reached her first WTA Premier-level final at the Apia International Sydney, defeating Carla Suárez Navarro and Angelique Kerber before losing to fellow Czech, Petra Kvitová, in two tie-breaking sets. As a consequence of this run, she broke into the world's top-20 for the first time in her career.At the first Grand Slam event of the year in Australia, Plíšková reached the third round before losing to Russia's Ekaterina Makarova.
She made her debut for the Czech Republic Fed Cup team in the first round of the 2015 Fed Cup World Group in February, winning both of her rubbers against Françoise Abanda and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada to help the Czechs to a 4–0 win in Québec.
As the eighth seed, Plíšková reached semifinal at Diamond Games Antwerp, before losing to eventual runner-up Carla Suárez Navarro. She then played at the 2015 Dubai Duty Free Championships and reached the final as the 17th seed, along the way beating No. 4 seed Ana Ivanovic, fellow Czech Lucie Šafářová, and the rising Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruza. She lost in the final against the top seed Simona Halep.
Plíšková then played in Indian Wells, where she won a rematch with Muguruza in the third round before losing again to Halep. In Miami, Plíšková reached the quarterfinals where she lost to Andrea Petkovic. She was the top seed in her home tournament in Prague and reached the final by defeating Annika Beck, Tsvetana Pironkova, Denisa Allertová and Yanina Wickmayer, going to a third set in three of her four matches. In the final, she defeated fellow Czech Lucie Hradecká in another three-set battle to claim her fourth WTA title.
At the Madrid Open she beat Sílvia Soler Espinosa in the first round, but lost to Caroline Garcia in the second. At the Italian Open she lost in the first round to Timea Bacsinszky in straight sets. She lost in the second round of French Open as 12th seed to unseeded Andreea Mitu in straight sets after beating Zhang Shuai in the first round.
She reached another final at Aegon Classic, losing to Angelique Kerber in three sets. She lost to Agnieszka Radwańska at Aegon International in the third round. At Wimbledon, Plíšková defeated Irina Falconi in three sets before losing to CoCo Vandeweghe in the second round.
She made another final at Stanford Classic, losing once again to Angelique Kerber. Plíšková lost in the first round at Canadian Open to Mirjana Lučić-Baroni and in the third round of the Western & Southern Open to Jelena Janković and reached the quarterfinals of the Connecticut Open, losing to Lesia Tsurenko. Seeded 8th at the US Open, Plíšková suffered a shocking loss to Anna Tatishvili in the first round.
She made another two quarterfinals at Toray Pan Pacific Open and Wuhan Open, losing to Agnieszka Radwańska and Roberta Vinci respectively, but lost in the first round of China Open to Sloane Stephens in straight sets. Her next tournament was the Tianjin Open where she reached the semifinals, losing to Radwańska for the third time in 2015. She lost in second round of the Kremlin Cup to Anastasija Sevastova.
She reached a tour-leading sixth final at the WTA Elite Trophy but lost to Venus Williams in straight sets. She ended the year ranked No. 11 in singles and was the 13th most popular player of the year according to the WTA's website. Plíšková played as Czech No. 2 in the Fed Cup Final, losing to Maria Sharapova on Saturday. The following day, she defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in singles and won the deciding doubles rubber with Barbora Strýcová, against Pavlyuchenkova and Elena Vesnina, to win her first Fed Cup title.
2016: US Open singles runner-up, top 5 & doubles rise
Plíšková began her season at the 2016 Hopman Cup, where she partnered with Jiří Veselý to represent the Czech Republic. She recorded singles wins over Jarmila Wolfe and Victoria Duval.She reached quarterfinals in Sydney by defeating Ana Ivanovic and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, both in straight sets, but lost to world No. 2, Simona Halep, in straight sets. At the 2016 Australian Open, Plíšková defeated Kimberly Birrell and Julia Görges in the first two rounds. However, she again lost to Makarova, who defeated her at the same round at last year's Australian Open. After the tournament, she competed at Fed Cup and earned important wins over Simona Halep and Monica Niculescu in Czech Republic's tie against Romania.
Her next tournament was the Dubai Tennis Championships, where she was defending last year's points as a finalist; however, she fell to Coco Vandeweghe in straight sets. Struggles continued as she lost to Margarita Gasparyan in the first round of the Qatar Open.
After receiving a first round bye in Indian Wells, Plíšková defeated Shelby Rogers and Ana Ivanovic, both in straight sets. She then defeated Johanna Konta in three sets and earned another straight sets win over rising star Daria Kasatkina, before losing in three sets to eventual champion Victoria Azarenka. Despite her good campaign in Indian Wells, Plíšková lost in the second round of the Miami Open to Tímea Babos after another first-round bye.
Plíšková opened her clay court season at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. She defeated the 2015 French Open finalist Lucie Šafářová in the first round in three sets and Ana Ivanovic in straight sets. However, she would fall to the top seed Agnieszka Radwańska in the third round. She next competed at the Prague Open. She cruised by Stefanie Vögele, Kateřina Siniaková, and Camila Giorgi in the first three rounds. However, she would lose in straight sets to Lucie Šafářová in the semifinals. Plíšková lost in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open to Madison Keys in straight sets and fell in the first round of the Italian Open to Daria Kasatkina. Her clay court season would come to a disappointing end as she would lose to the 108th ranked player in the world, Shelby Rogers in the first round of the French Open.
Plíšková won her first title of the year at the Nottingham Open. After a three set match with Anastasija Sevastova in the first round, she cruised to the final and beat Alison Riske for her first grass title. She then lost in the first round of the Birmingham Classic to Barbora Strýcová and reached the final of the Eastbourne International where she lost to Dominika Cibulková. At Wimbledon, Plíšková beat Yanina Wickmayer in three sets before losing to Misaki Doi in the second round.
Plíšková began her hardcourt season at the Rogers Cup, where she beat Kateryna Bondarenko and Sara Errani before losing in straight sets to eventual champion Simona Halep. She then pulled out of the Olympics. Plíšková won her maiden WTA Premier tournament at the Western & Southern Open, defeating Germany's Angelique Kerber
Plíšková continued the season with playing in Asia and the first tournament was in Tokyo, however she lost in the first match to qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich. In the next tournament in Wuhan she had bye in the first round and in the second round she defeated countrywoman Lucie Šafářová and the easily lost to Dominika Cibulková. Her run ended in the third round in Beijing either. In the first round she met Šafářová again and beat her in three sets and then won over Daria Kasatkina by winning 9–7 in tie-break third set. Then she lost to Johanna Konta in three sets.
Plíšková qualified for 2016 WTA Finals and was in the group with Agnieszka Radwanska, Garbine Muguruza and Svetlana Kuznetsova. The first match was against Muguruza, which Plíšková won and had to face Muguruza's matchpoints. In other matches the opponents were more successful and Plíšková ended the tournament in Singapore with one win and two losses. Plíšková played her final matches of 2016 in the Fed Cup Final in France. She beat Kristina Mladenovic in the first singles rubber, which saw the third set end in a score of 14–12. This was the longest rubber in a Fed Cup Final, in terms of games played. In the next singles rubber against Caroline Garcia, Plíšková lost in three sets. The tie was even after the four singles rubbers, setting up a decisive doubles contest in which Plíšková partnered with Barbora Strýcová to defeat the WTA No. 1 ranked doubles team of Mladenovic/Garcia. With this victory over France, Plíšková and her Czech teammates completed a Fed Cup hat trick. It was also the second consecutive year that Plíšková and Strýcová won a decisive doubles rubber in the final.
At the end of the season she changed coaches. Jiří Vaněk was substituted by David Kotyza, former coach of compatriot and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitová.
2017: French Open semifinal and world No. 1
In 2017, Plíšková started the season by playing in Brisbane, where she beat Yulia Putintseva and qualifier Asia Muhammad in two sets and then Roberta Vinci in three sets. She then defeated Elina Svitolina and Alizé Cornet and won her 7th title.At the 2017 Australian Open, she defeated easily Sara Sorribes Tormo and Anna Blinkova and beat Jelena Ostapenko in three sets despite being down 2–5 in the third. In the fourth round she defeated Daria Gavrilova and reached her second straight Grand Slam quarterfinal, where she was defeated by unseeded Mirjana Lučić-Baroni in three sets. Her ranking increased to a career-high of 3 in the world.
In February, Plíšková played first round of Fed Cup against Spain in Ostrava. She defeated Lara Arruabarrena and Garbiñe Muguruza, both in straight sets. Her next tournament was Doha, where she had a bye in the first round. She played against Caroline Garcia in the second round and revenged the loss from the end of 2016 with a straight sets win. Then she played two matches in one day due to rain and won both of them. The quarterfinal against Zhang Shuai lasted overall about 7 hours. However, she outlasted Shuai in two sets before edging No. 5 Dominika Cibulková in three sets, a match in which she hit a career-best 21 aces to beat the Slovakian for the first time. In the final she beat Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets to win her 8th WTA title. Plíšková lost in the second round to Kristina Mladenovic in Dubai.
In the second round of the BNP Paribas Open, she defeated Monica Puig in three sets in a match full of errors. Although Plíšková's performance was not so confident, she defeated Irina-Camelia Begu in two sets, Timea Bacsinszky, who retired at the end of the sixth game, and Garbine Muguruza in two tie-breaks. In the semifinal against Svetlana Kuznetsova, Plíšková fell in straight tie-breaks. She reached the semifinals of the Miami Open, recording straight-set victories against qualifier Madison Brengle, Yulia Putintseva, countrywoman Barbora Strýcová, and Mirjana Lučić-Baroni before falling to Caroline Wozniacki in three sets.
Plíšková kicked off the clay-court season in Stuttgart, where she defeated CoCo Vandeweghe in straight sets, but then lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Laura Siegemund. She then lost in the first round of home tournament Prague to Camila Giorgi. She also reached her first quarterfinals in Rome. In the first round she beat Lauren Davis, then Timea Bacsinszky before losing to eventual champion Elina Svitolina in straight sets in which was also her first defeat to Svitolina in her career. At the 2017 French Open, she beat Zheng Saisai, Ekaterina Alexandrova, and Carina Witthöft before winning a close fourth-round match against Veronica Cepede Royg. She then defeated Caroline Garcia to set up a semifinal encounter with Simona Halep, which she lost in three sets. The defeat prevented her from claiming the world No. 1 ranking at the conclusion of the tournament. At Wimbledon, Plíšková was again one of the pre-tournament favourites, but suffered a second-round exit after losing in three-sets to world number 87 Magdaléna Rybáriková.
On 17 July, Plíšková reached the WTA world No. 1 ranking for the first time in her career. She was the sixth player to reach the No. 1 position without having won a Grand Slam tournament and the first female player representing the Czech Republic to achieve the feat. Czechoslovakian-born Martina Navratilova had also achieved a WTA world No. 1 ranking, but was already representing the United States when she first topped the rankings in 1978.
Plíšková attained solid results during the U.S. summer swing, reaching the quarterfinals and semifinals of the Canadian Open and the Western & Southern Open respectively. Pliskova participated in the US Open, where she was the top seed for the first time in a major. Plíšková easily defeated Magda Linette in straight sets in the first round, and outlasted American Nicole Gibbs after dropping the first set. In the third round she made a furious comeback after being a set down and facing match point in the second set to defeat 27th seed Zhang Shuai. She defeated Jennifer Brady by dropping just one game and advanced to the quarterfinals. Plíšková lost to CoCo Vandeweghe in straight sets in the quarterfinals of the US Open.
At the Pan Pacific Open, she defeated Magda Linette before losing to Angelique Kerber. At the Wuhan Open, Plíšková reached the quarterfinal stage before losing to Ashleigh Barty in three sets. At the China Open, she defeated Carla Suarez Navarro and Andrea Petkovic to reach the third round, where she lost to Sorana Cîrstea. At the WTA Finals, Plíšková defeated Venus Williams in straight sets, and then faced Garbiñe Muguruza whom she also defeated in straight sets. These victories ensured that she would reach the semifinals of the WTA Finals for the first time. She then lost to Wozniacki in straight sets.
2018: Australian and US Open quarterfinals
In Brisbane, Plíšková lost in semifinals to Elina Svitolina. At the Australian Open Plíšková reached quarterfinals for the second time, having defeated Verónica Cepede Royg, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Lucie Šafářová and Barbora Strýcová. In quarterfinals she lost to Simona Halep in straight sets. In Qatar Open, she reached the third round after receiving a first round bye and defeating Alizé Cornet in second round in straight sets. In third round she fell to American teenager Cici Bellis in straight sets, thus failing to defend her title. In Dubai after receiving first round bye, she defeated Carla Suarez Navarro in three sets in the second round. In the quarterfinals she was defeated by Angelique Kerber in straight sets. In Indian Wells Plisková reached the quarterfinals, where she lost to eventual champion Naomi Osaka. At the following tournament, the Miami Open, Plíšková was defeated by wildcard and former champion Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals.Then Plíšková reached the quarterfinals in Dubai, Indian Wells and Miami. In April, she won the Stuttgart Open, defeating CoCo Vandeweghe in the final. She played also in the semifinals of Madrid.
After reaching the quarterfinals in New York, Plíšková defeated the newly-crowned US Open champion Naomi Osaka to take Pan Pacific Open, her eleventh career title.
2019: Australian Open semifinal, second Premier-5 title
Plíšková opened her season at the Brisbane International, seeded fifth. She defeated Yulia Putintseva, Marie Bouzková, Ajla Tomljanović, Donna Vekić, and Lesia Tsurenko to win the title.Plíšková was seeded seventh at the 2019 Australian Open. She defeated qualifier Karolína Muchová, Madison Brengle, 27th seed Camila Giorgi, and 18th seed Garbiñe Muguruza to reach her third consecutive quarterfinal at the tournament. There, she faced 16th seed Serena Williams, who had defeated top seed Simona Halep in the previous round. After going up a set and a break, Plíšková lost ground to Serena and found herself facing match point at five games to one in the third set. However, she pulled off a stunning comeback, winning six consecutive games and saving three additional match points at 5–4 to win the set 7–5. She thus advanced to her first Australian Open semifinal, which she lost the next day to fourth seed Naomi Osaka in three sets.
Plíšková managed to carry her momentum through the early hard-court season, making the quarterfinals in both Dubai and Indian Wells. She then managed to reach her first career Premier Mandatory final at the Miami Open, after beating reigning French Open champion Simona Halep in the semifinals. Pliskova was 3–5 down in the first set and 2 points away from losing the first set but won 10 of the next 11 games to defeat Halep in straight sets. However, she was defeated in the final by Ashleigh Barty in straight sets.
Plíšková got off to a disappointing start to the clay-court season, losing to former world No. 1, Victoria Azarenka, in her opening match in Stuttgart and Ukrainian qualifier Kateryna Kozlova in the second round in Madrid. She rebounded, however, to win the biggest clay-court title of her career, and her second career Premier-5 title, at the Italian Open, avenging her previous defeat against Azarenka by defeating her in the quarterfinals, before beating Maria Sakkari in the semifinals and a resurgent Johanna Konta in the final. Plíšková rose back up to No. 2 in the rankings following her victory. At the French Open, she was seeded second and had an opportunity to take over the world No. 1 ranking from Osaka if she reached the final. However, despite being labeled a heavy favorite, she was upset in the third round by the 31st seed Petra Martić.
At the Birmingham Classic in June, she and her sister Kristýna became the first identical twins in WTA history to play each other in a main draw match. Karolina lost to her sister, who was ranked 112th.
Plíšková's final grass court warmup tournament before Wimbledon was at the Eastbourne International, where she defeated Margarita Gasparyan, Elise Mertens, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Kiki Bertens and Angelique Kerber all in straight sets to pick up her 14th career title and her second at Eastbourne. She reached the last 16 at Wimbledon, but was upset by the unseeded Karolína Muchová, with the match going to 13–11 in the final set.
2020: Brisbane defence
At Brisbane, Plíšková defeated Ajla Tomljanović, Alison Riske, Naomi Osaka, and Madison Keys to successfully defend her title, and win the most Brisbane International titles ever. At the Australian Open, she defeated Kristina Mladenovic and Laura Siegemund, before falling to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round.Playing style and coaching
Plíšková utilizes an extremely aggressive style, highlighted by her powerful, accurate serve as well as her forceful groundstrokes often in tandem with her net play, to extract errors from opponents or win points outright. She also shows accuracy and power on mid-court shots, sometimes following them to net. In the 2016 US Open final, she won 80% of her serve-and-volley points.Plíšková has had several coaches throughout her career; Jiří Vaněk, David Kotyza, and Tomáš Krupa. Her current coach is since the end of 2018 Conchita Martinez.. Rennae Stubbs was her coach for the 2018 edition of the US Open and then she returned to her TV commenting.
in November 2019, Plíšková announced that the Association of Tennis Professionals coach Daniel Vallverdu will replace 2016 US Open finalist's former coach, Conchita Martinez.
Career statistics
Grand Slam performance timeline
| Tournament | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | Win% | ||
| Australian Open | A | Q1 | Q1 | 1R | 2R | 3R | 3R | QF | QF | SF | 3R | 0 / 8 | 20–8 | |
| French Open | A | Q2 | 1R | 1R | 2R | 2R | 1R | SF | 3R | 3R | 0 / 8 | 11–8 | ||
| Wimbledon | Q1 | A | 1R | 2R | 2R | 2R | 2R | 2R | 4R | 4R | NH | 0 / 8 | 11–8 | |
| US Open | Q1 | Q1 | Q2 | 1R | 3R | 1R | F | QF | QF | 4R | 0 / 7 | 19–7 | ||
| Win–Loss | 0–0 | 0–0 | 0–2 | 1–4 | 5–4 | 4–4 | 9–4 | 14–4 | 13–4 | 13–4 | 2–1 | 0 / 31 | 61–31 |