Karolina Pliskova admits she is feeling the pressure of her higher seeding at majors this year as she is still getting accustomed to her status as the 11th-ranked player in the world.
– #Quiz360: WIN a gym membership at FitRepublik
– Off The Net: Surviving The Wimbledon Queue
– Wimbledon: Kyrgios, Djokovic through to last 32
Pliskova became the fourth-highest seed in the women’s draw to stumble out of Wimbledon after losing to American world No 47 Coco Vandeweghe 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the second round on Thursday.
The Czech No 11 seed, renowned for her huge serve, is yet to make it past the second round at the All England Club in four appearances here and hasn’t been able to mimic her results from the WTA tour at the majors this season (lost third round in Melbourne, second round in Paris and Wimbledon).
CoCo Vandeweghe pulls off the upset, beats No. 11 Karolina Pliskova 76 64. Great match from the American. #Wimbledon
— SI Tennis (@SI_Tennis) July 1, 2015
“For sure it feels a little bit different. This is my first year where I’m seeded at the grand slams. I have to say there is more pressure than before because before you could get anyone, you’re just hoping not to get Serena or those kind of seeds and I was just happy about every round I got through,” said the 23-year-old Pliskova.
“This year you feel the pressure, I’m trying not to think about it but there’s still the pressure because I’m seeded No11 and I know I had some good results this year in the other tournaments so I’m trying to put it in the grand slams as well but it’s just not going well this year. But there’s still the US Open so we’ll see.”
On paper, Pliskova’s game should be perfect for grass but the 1.85m Czech is yet to find her footing on the turf in terms of results.
“I feel okay this year on grass and I felt that I had a good week in Birmingham and was okay in Eastbourne as well. The first match at Wimbledon was quite okay but this match isn’t much about how I feel but more about her (Vandeweghe). I just didn’t have that many chances on her serve. I think my serve wasn’t that good today as well.
“I think she was playing really solid today with her serve. Normally she can have a match where she’s making 100 mistakes and double faults and stuff but she was serving really well, really big serves and playing solid from the baseline as well. So I think she was a bit better than me. In the second set she was more aggressive from the baseline, so she deserved to win.”
