By Bill Simons
STANFORD—Lightning always seems to strike at the Bank of the West Classic. Sometimes not just twice but even three times, as in Serena‘s trio of wins over the last five years. Other times, appealing Grand Slam finalists like Aga Radwanska and Dominika Cibulkova have struck. Early in this year’s Classic, the skies exploded over Stanford’s Taube Stadium, offering stunning pyrotechnics.
All the while, promoters were thunderstruck. After Serena pulled out, one star after another plummeted: Caroline Wozniacki,Radwanska, Carla Suarez Navarro, Andrea Petkovic and Madison Keys bolted out of a tournament in which Angelique Kerber prevailed not so much with lightning power, but rather with a steady storm of speed, grit and competitive fire.
Yes, she’s a sweet-looking blond. Her name is Angeliique, but she’s no angel. The 27-year-old Angelique Kerber is a veteran with a devilish game who time and again toughs out dicey matches. She triumphed in a breathtaking 2:45 quarterfinal upset of No. 2 seed Radwanska, heralded by many as one of the best matches of the year. This season she had won all three of her finals—Charleston, Stuttgart and Birmingham— all in three sets.
But in the Bank of the West final, the 5’8″ No. 14-ranked German faced a tall task: beating a 6’1″ Czech.
Yes, Karolina Pliskova is a 23-year-old you may not have heard of and whose name you may have trouble pronouncing. Lithe and lean, she seems to have been selected from central casting. Pliskova has the most aces this year—370, 18 more than Serena.Okay, she has two Polynesian tattoos, whose meaning is a mystery. But her big game is becoming increasingly clear. Blessed with that great serve, she blasts her groundies with an easy, crisp power that imposes and pins foes. Along with Petra Kvitova and Lucie Safarova, she is one of three Czechs in the top 10.
Early in today’s final, it seemed that she would pull ahead 4-3 in the first set. But Hawk-Eye overruled a game-winning shot and she promptly double–faulted, blew a volley and lost three straight games and the first set, 6-3. Certainly, she was doomed. Kerber, a great frontrunner, is 28-4 when she wins the first set. But Pliksova stepped up and began to mercilessly attack the German’s serve, which was stuck in the 70s and 80s.
Pliskova continually scored return winners, opened the court with her groundies and broke serve. The only problem was that on her own serve she fell completely out of rhythm and repeatedly double-faulted. Her groundies missed the lines, she muffed simple swinging volleys and netted sitters. Incredibly, both players repeatedly failed to hold serve. There were nine breaks in the second set. How odd.
Question: “Can’t anyone around here hold serve?”
Answer: “Nope.”
Same old script—Pliskova consistently failed to consolidate her breaks. At last, up 6-5 in the second, she blasted a blistering forehand and an overhead winner to finally hold and take the set.
Match on.
Still, the dreary pattern held sway, as both players traded breaks in the decisive third until the bigger, younger, more powerful Pliskova began to wear down her foe. This was a lean heavyweight puncher unloading close-to-the-line blows against a formidable but smaller counterpuncher. Pliskova broke to go up 3-2.
But Kerber fought—corner to corner, fierce and tenacious. Never mind that she often squatted low to persevere and was sometimes knocked to the court. Unfazed by her late-match pain, her failure to hold serve, and a bombardment of 58 winners from the Czech, Kerber refused to check out.
She did what she does best. She sprinted, she scraped, she defended, she used her savvy and her magic wrists to force Karolina into errors. Or she got her off-balance and scored seeing-eye passing shots. San Mateo fan David Pritcher got it right. “Whoever can hold serve will win.” And Kerber did just that, to edge ahead 4-3 in the third.
“Someone held serve,” noted a voice in row K. “How about that!”
Down 4-5 and feeling the scoreboard pressure, Pliskova, who has underperformed in finals and faltered terribly at Slams, again blinked. Her forehands flew errant and she double-faulted twice. Kerber’s tenacious intensity may not have been tennis lightning. But on this finals day, when there was barely a cloud in the Palo Alto sky, she unleashed a significant storm. The German reigned again, claiming her fourth title of the year 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
