Czech Karolina Pliskova rose to the top of the WTA rankings without striking a ball on Tuesday July 11,2017 as results at Wimbledon saw her overhaul Germany`s Angelique Kerber.
By a quirk of the points-based ranking system the 25-year-old rose to the summit -- the 23rd player to do so -- thanks to Simona Halep`s quarter-final loss to Johanna Konta.
Romanian Halep would have become world number one had she beaten the Briton but went down 6-7(2) 7-6(5) 6-4.
Bizarrely Pliskova, seeded three at Wimbledon, lost in the second round to Magdalena Rybarikova but her consistent results this year, including reaching the French Open semi-finals, means she will be number one when the rankings are updated on Monday July 10,2017
Despite never having won a grand slam tournament, the Monte-Carlo based player becomes the first Czech to be number one since the rankings were introduced in 1975.
Czech-born Martina Navratilova, who won 18 singles majors, became number one in 1978 but was representing the U.S. by then
Pliskova has won three titles this year, in Brisbane, Doha and the Wimbledon warm-up event at Eastbourne.
Kerber, who spent a total of 34 weeks as world number one, needed to reach the Wimbledon final to have a chance of hanging on to the top spot, but was beaten by Span`s Garbine Muguruza in the last 16 on Monday July 10,2017
No comments:
Post a Comment