Google News
World No. 3 Karolina Pliskova wasn't happy with her start to the season but she is happy that she maneged to turn the things around and clinch a spot for the WTA Finals. Pliskova's first good result of the season came in May, when she finished runner-up at the Rome Masters.
Pliskova then also finished runner-up at Wimbledon and the Montreal Masters. Pliskova is now ranked at No. 3 on the Race to the WTA Finals. "Normally I don't really follow rankings and Race at all. [I follow] the Race a bit more than ranking because at least you kind of know where you are," Pliskova claimed, per the WTA website.
"Then I could see in the beginning that maybe I was like No.30 or 40. I never started a year like this in the last five or six years. So I was like, 'OK, that's really bad,' you know?"
Pliskova never stopped believing
"But then still, I believed there are still so many big tournaments.
Then once I got closer and I was like No.15, I was like, 'OK, that's really good. I'm No.15, I'm getting closer.' But of course, still there are huge points that you need to be in the top eight. Now [I'm] actually back in the Top 5 after a couple of years.
"So super proud about that, that we didn't give up. I think it could easily go the wrong way, just to go, 'OK, whatever, this year is horrible, COVID and bubbles and everything, I was tired. But I'm just proud that we somehow stayed [with it] and even made it much better.
I think that was the best second part of the year that I had ever." Pliskova, a former world No. 1, is now playing at the Indian Wells Masters. Plisova made back-to-back semifinals at the tournament in 2016 and 2017.