TENNIS: Eastbourne (ladies singles)
Jun. 30th, 2019 08:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllIt feels apt that, previous to the final, the only tennis I’d seen from Eastbourne was Pliskova winning her quarter-final.
Her against Kerber was a tasty prospect for a final, just from knowing their games. I then learned that they’d played eleven times before, Kerber with the lead, but Pliskova having won the last match, that Kerber had won the one tournament this year (like many others), had been in the finals here before and would be returning to Wimbledon as defending champion, while the higher ranked Pliskova had won two tournaments in this strange year for women’s tennis, and was a previous winner here…
One expected Pliskova to continue serving well, but seeing how well she was playing and having the analysis of why she was rattling Kerber so made me even more impressed. (As she’s never done that well at Wimbledon, Pliskova has seemed like an also-ran.) That first quarter of an hour where she zoomed ahead set the scene for the whole match, and although it was closer in the second set, with Kerber battling (after a torrid time on her serve in the first set) Pliskova was too much on the front foot (although seeming to be willing to run to defend and retrieve a little more than usual).
A short final – and not helped by the whole switching channels option in potentially the last game of the match, but Pliskova’s play was blistering. Perhaps she is developing into a Grand Slam winning player.
Her against Kerber was a tasty prospect for a final, just from knowing their games. I then learned that they’d played eleven times before, Kerber with the lead, but Pliskova having won the last match, that Kerber had won the one tournament this year (like many others), had been in the finals here before and would be returning to Wimbledon as defending champion, while the higher ranked Pliskova had won two tournaments in this strange year for women’s tennis, and was a previous winner here…
One expected Pliskova to continue serving well, but seeing how well she was playing and having the analysis of why she was rattling Kerber so made me even more impressed. (As she’s never done that well at Wimbledon, Pliskova has seemed like an also-ran.) That first quarter of an hour where she zoomed ahead set the scene for the whole match, and although it was closer in the second set, with Kerber battling (after a torrid time on her serve in the first set) Pliskova was too much on the front foot (although seeming to be willing to run to defend and retrieve a little more than usual).
A short final – and not helped by the whole switching channels option in potentially the last game of the match, but Pliskova’s play was blistering. Perhaps she is developing into a Grand Slam winning player.
