Karolína Plíšková Comes Up Short At Wimbledon After Her Long Journey Back To The Final Of A Grand Slam Tournament

The 2021 Wimbledon women’s tournament produced a lot of surprise upsets in the early rounds, but ultimately the dust settled with a fitting title match that featured world number one Ash Barty, and former world number one Karolína Plíšková. It was the second Grand Slam Singles Final and first Wimbledon Final for both women. In a three set match, 2016 U.S. Open runner-up Plíšková lost to 2019 French Open Champion Barty. Though all of the major headlines are rightfully focused on the historic victory of the 25 year-old Ausie Ash Barty, who has become a rising young star on the WTA circuit, you shouldn’t overlook Karolína Plíšková’s return to the final of a Grand Slam Tournament ending a five-year drought.

It’s been an impressive career so far for the 29 year-old Karolína Plíšková as she has won a total 556 matches and 16 WTA singles titles since turning professional in 2009. She won her first title in 2013 at the Malaysian Open, and in 2015, two years after her maiden singles title, Plíšková made her first appearance in the top-ten rankings. The following year, Plíšková made it to her first Grand Slam Singles Final at the 2016 U.S. Open, but lost a heart-breaking three set match to champion Angelique Kerber. Since that tournament, Plíšková enjoyed a brief stint as world number one in 2017 after a semifinals appearance in the French Open. She also made it to the semifinals of the 2017 WTA Tour Finals. While you can’t discount Plíšková’s impressive 16 career titles, her performances in major tournaments have largely resulted in coming up short. She finished as a semifinalist in the 2018 and 2019 WTA Tour Finals, and also a semifinalist at the Australian Open in 2019. A bright spot for Plíšková in that stretch was when she helped lead the Czech Republic to Fed Cup victories in 2015, 2016, and 2018.

These repeated close calls seemed to be coming to an end for Plíšková after leveling the 2021 Wimbledon Final at one set a piece against Barty, but once again she dropped the final set and became runner-up at a Grand Slam Final for the second time in her career. Karolína Plíšková continues to chase that ever elusive maiden Grand Slam Singles Title.

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