Karolína Plíšková

Personal life

Plíšková was born in Louny to Radek Plíšek and Martina Plíšková, and has an identical twin sister, Kristýna, who is two minutes older and is also a tennis player. She currently lives in Monte Carlo.

She has been previously coached by Jiří Vaněk (parted ways with him in late 2016). Her current coach is David Kotyza.

Karolína Plíšková has two Polynesian-style tattoos, one on her left thigh and another on the outside of her left arm. Her family members like her parents and her sister have tattoos in same style.

Playing style

Pliskova plays an extremely aggressive style of play, highlighted by her powerful, accurate serve as well as forceful groundstrokes. Pliskova utilizes these, often in tandem with her net play, to extract errors from opponents or win points outright. Pliskova also shows lethal accuracy and power on mid court shots, often following them to net if not a winner. Pliskova's weaknesses include her ability to break down when off balance, particularly moving toward horizontally, particularly when stretched to the backhand wing. However, Pliskova's movement, though a tall player, is exceptional for her height. Because of her flat groundstroke motions as well as her height, Pliskova finds difficulty finishing points quickly when given lower balls, particularly sliced shots or when moved off balance with deep, heavy topspin shots.

2010

Karolína Plíšková won 2010 Australian Open junior title, defeating Laura Robson in the girls' final.

2012

Plíšková played her first senior Grand Slam tournament main draw at the 2012 French Open. To qualify, she defeated Dia Evtimova, Tamaryn Hendler and Laura Robson. She lost in the first round to world number 8 Marion Bartoli in straight sets.

2013: First WTA title

Plíšková started the year in Brisbane International. She however lost to Olga Puchkova in the first round in two sets. Then in her next tournament in Sydney she qualified, beating Alexandra Panova, Irina Falconi and Estrella Cabeza Candela. In the first round she lost to the third seed, Sara Errani.

Plíšková won her maiden WTA title at the 2013 Malaysian Open. She defeated several seeded players to reach the final against the American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, defeating her in three sets.

At the Generali Ladies Linz in October, Plíšková won her first WTA title in doubles alongside sister Kristýna, becoming the first set of twins in history to win a doubles title together on the tour.

2014: Breakthrough

2014 was a breakthrough year for Plíšková. After consecutive second-round finishes in Auckland and at the Australian Open, she reached her second career WTA tour final in Pattaya City, defeating top-50 players Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sorana Cîrstea before losing to Ekaterina Makarova in the final. She then reached the third round of Indian Wells, the quarterfinals of the Monterrey Open and the semifinals in Kuala Lumpur between March and April. In May, she reached her third career final in Nuremberg, losing to second seed Eugenie Bouchard in three sets. She broke into the top-50 in July and defeated world number 9 Ana Ivanovic in the second round of the US Open. After playing in America, she reached two finals in two consecutive weeks – in Hong Kong, where she lost to Sabine Lisicki, and in Seoul, which she won, defeating Varvara Lepchenko in the final to take her second career title. A third overall title (and second of the year) in Linz ensured Plíšková finished the year in the top-25, ranked world number 24.

As an alternate, Plíšková made a round-robin appearance at the season-closing Tournament of Champions, in lieu of top seed Ekaterina Makarova, losing her sole match against Flavia Pennetta of Italy.

After reaching five finals and winning two of them, and appearing to a broader public at the US Open with a big win over a former world number one, and being eighth seed at the tournament and reaching the third round at a Grand Slam for the first time, 2014 was a breakthrough year for Plíšková. She leaped from world number 67 to 24.

2015: Top 10 debut

Plíšková began her year at the 2015 Brisbane International where she defeated former world number 1 and two-time Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka in the first round before losing in the second. She reached her first WTA Premier-level final at the 2015 Apia International Sydney, defeating Carla Suárez Navarro and Angelique Kerber before losing to fellow Czech Petra Kvitová in two tie-breaking sets. As a consequence of this run, she broke into the world's top-20 for the first time in her career.

At the first Grand Slam of the year in Australia, Plíšková reached the third round before losing to Russia's Ekaterina Makarova.

Plíšková made her debut for the Czech Republic Fed Cup team in the first round of the 2015 Fed Cup World Group in February, winning both of her rubbers against Françoise Abanda and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada to help the Czechs to a 4–0 win in Quebec.

As the 8th seed, Plíšková reached semifinal at Diamond Games Antwerp, before losing to eventual runner-up Carla Suárez Navarro. She then played at the 2015 Dubai Duty Free Championships and reached the final as the 17th seed, along the way beating number 4 seed Ana Ivanovic, fellow Czech Lucie Šafářová, and the rising Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruza. She lost in the final against the top seed Simona Halep.

Plíšková then played in Indian Wells, where she won a rematch with Muguruza in the third round before losing again to Halep. In Miami, Plíšková reached the quarterfinals where she lost to Andrea Petkovic.

Plíšková was the top seed in her home tournament in Prague. She reached the final by defeating Annika Beck, Tsvetana Pironkova, Denisa Allertová and Yanina Wickmayer, going to a third set in three of her four matches. In the final she defeated fellow Czech Lucie Hradecká in another three-set battle to claim her fourth WTA title.

At the Madrid Open she beat Sílvia Soler Espinosa in the first round, but lost to Caroline Garcia in the second. At the Rome Open she lost in the first round to Timea Bacsinszky in straight sets. She lost in the second round of French Open as 12th seed to unseeded Andreea Mitu in straight sets after beating Shuai Zhang in the first round.

She reached another final at Aegon Classic, losing to Angelique Kerber in three sets. She lost to Agnieszka Radwańska at Aegon International in the third round. At Wimbledon, Pliskova defeated Irina Falconi in three sets before losing to Coco Vandeweghe in the second round.

She made another final at Stanford Classic, losing once again to Angelique Kerber.Pliskova lost in the first round at Rogers Cup to Mirjana Lučić-Baroni and in the third round of the Western & Southern Open to Jelena Janković and reached the quarterfinals of the Connecticut Open, losing to Lesia Tsurenko. Seeded 8th at the US Open, Pliskova suffered a shocking loss to Anna Tatishvili in the first round.

She made another two quarterfinals at Toray Pan Pacific Open and Wuhan Open, losing to Agnieszka Radwańska and Roberta Vinci respectively, but lost in the first round of China Open to Sloane Stephens in straight sets. Her next tournament was the Tianjin Open where she reached the semifinals, losing to Radwańska for the third time in 2015. She lost in second round of the Kremlin Cup to Anastasija Sevastova.

She reached a tour-leading sixth final at the WTA Elite Trophy but lost to Venus Williams in straight sets. She ended the year ranked No. 11 in singles and was the 13th most popular player of the year according to the WTA's website. Pliskova played as Czech No.2 in the Fed Cup Final, losing to Maria Sharapova on Saturday. The following day, she defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in singles and won the deciding doubles rubber with Barbora Strýcová, against Pavlyuchenkova and Elena Vesnina, to win her first Fed Cup title.

2016: First Premier 5 title, US Open runner-up and Top 5

Plíšková began her season at the 2016 Hopman Cup, where she partnered with Jiří Veselý to represent the Czech Republic. She recorded singles wins over Jarmila Wolfe and Victoria Duval.

She reached quarterfinals in Sydney by defeating Ana Ivanovic and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, both in straight sets, but lost to World no.2 Simona Halep in straight sets. At the 2016 Australian Open, Plíšková defeated Kimberly Birrell and Julia Görges (both in straight sets) in the first two rounds. However, she again lost to Makarova, who defeated her at the same tournament and same round at last year's Australian Open. After the tournament, she competed at Fed Cup and earned important wins over Simona Halep and Monica Niculescu in Czech Republic's tie against Romania.

Her next tournament was the Dubai Tennis Championships, where she was defending last year's points as a finalist; however, she fell to Coco Vandeweghe in straight sets. Struggles continued as she lost to Margarita Gasparyan in the first round of the Qatar Open.

After receiving a first round bye in Indian Wells, Pliskova defeated Shelby Rogers and Ana Ivanovic, both in straight sets. She then defeated Johanna Konta in three sets and earned another straight sets win over rising star Daria Kasatkina, before losing in three sets to eventual champion Victoria Azarenka. Despite her good campaign in Indian Wells, Pliskova lost in the second round of the Miami Open to Timea Babos after another first round bye.

Plíšková opened her clay court season at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. She defeated the 2015 French Open finalist Lucie Šafářová in the first round in three sets and Ana Ivanovic in straight sets. However, she would fall to the 1st seed Agnieszka Radwańska in the third round. She next competed at the Prague Open. She cruised by Stefanie Vögele, Kateřina Siniaková, and Camila Giorgi in the first three rounds. However, she would lose in straight sets to Lucie Šafářová in the semifinals. Plíšková lost in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open to Madison Keys in straight sets and fell in the first round of the Italian Open to Daria Kasatkina. Her clay court season would come to a disappointing end as she would lose to the 108th ranked player in the world, Shelby Rogers in the first round of the French Open.

Plíšková won her first title of the year at the 2016 Aegon Open. After a three set match with Anastasija Sevastova in the first round, she cruised to the final and beat Alison Riske for her first grass title. She then lost in the first round of the Birmingham Classic to fellow Czech Barbora Strýcová and reached the final of the Eastbourne International where she lost to Dominika Cibulková. At Wimbledon, Pliskova beat Yanina Wickmayer in three sets before losing to Misaki Doi in the second round.

Pliskova began her hardcourt season at the Rogers Cup, where she beat Kateryna Bondarenko and Sara Errani (who had to withdraw from the match) before losing in straight sets to eventual champion Simona Halep. She then pulled out of the Olympics. Pliskova won her maiden WTA Premier tournament at the Western & Southern Open, defeating Germany's Angelique Kerber in straight sets in the final. Her victory denied Kerber the opportunity to take over the world #1 ranking from Serena Williams and enabled Williams to tie Steffi Graf's record of 186 consecutive weeks at #1. At the US Open, Pliskova beat wildcard Sofia Kenin, qualifier Montserrat González and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova en route to her first Grand Slam Round of 16, where she defeated No. 6 seed and two-time champion Venus Williams in three sets and ensured her first ever major quarterfinal where she faced Ana Konjuh. She beat the Croatian in straight sets and reached her first Major semifinal, where she beat Serena Williams in straight sets to reach the final, where Serena Williams was attempting to vie her seventh US Open title. In the final, she lost to incoming No. 1 Angelique Kerber, despite winning the second set and being 3–1 up in the final set.

Pliskova continued the season with playing in Asia and the first tournament was in Tokyo, however she lost in the first match to qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich. In the next tournament in Wuhan she had BYE in the first round and in the second round she defeated countrywoman Lucie Šafářová and the easily lost to Dominika Cibulková. Her run ended in the third round in Beijing either. In the first round she met Šafářová again and beat her in three sets and then won over Daria Kasatkina by winning 9–7 in tie-break third set. Then she lost to Johanna Konta in three sets.

Pliskova qualified for 2016 WTA Finals and was in the group with Agnieszka Radwanska, Garbine Muguruza and Svetlana Kuznetsova. The first match was against Muguruza, which Pliskova won and had to face Muguruza´s matchpoints. In other matches the opponents was more successful and Pliskova ended the tournament in Singapore by one win and two losses. The last matches Pliskova played in Fed Cup final in France. She beat Kristina Mladenovic in the first match with result 14–12 in the third set. The next match was played against Caroline Garcia, which Karolina lost in three sets. The last match was doubles and Karolina and Barbora Strýcová defeated doubles no.1 Mladenovic/Garcia and celebreated the Fed Cup hattrick.

At the end of the season she changed coaches. Jiří Vaněk was substitued by David Kotyza, former coach of compatriot and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitová.

2017: Australian Open quarterfinal and Top 3

In 2017 Pliskova started the season with playing in Brisbane, where she beat Yulia Putintseva and qualifier Asia Muhammad in two sets and then Roberta Vinci in three sets. Karolina then defeated Elina Svitolina and Alizé Cornet (both in straight sets) and won her 7th title.

At the 2017 Australian Open she defeated easily Sara Sorribes Tormo and Anna Blinkova and beat Jelena Ostapenko in three sets despite being down 2–5 in the third. In the fourth round she defeated Daria Gavrilova and reached her second straight Grand Slam quarterfinal, where she was defeated by unseeded Mirjana Lučić-Baroni in three sets. Her ranking increased to a career high of 3 in the world.

On February Karolina played Fed Cup 1st round against Spain in Ostrava, Czech Republic. She defeated Lara Arruabarrena and Garbine Muguruza, both in straight sets. Her next tournament was Doha, where she had BYE in the first round. She played against Caroline Garcia in the second round and revenged the loss from the end of 2016 with a straight sets win. Then she played two matches in one day due to rain and won both of them. The quarterfinal against Zhang Shuai lasted overall about 7 hours, however she outlasted Chinese easily in two sets before edging no. 5 Dominika Cibulková in three sets,a match in which she hit a carrer-best 21 aces to beat the Slovakian for the first time.In the final she beat former no. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets to win her 8th WTA title.