Top 5 wins of Karolina Pliskova's career

#2 vs. Angelique Kerber at the final of the 2016 Cincinnati Masters

The Czech won her maiden Premier 5 title by beating Angelique Kerber in the final

Following a disappointing Wimbledon and a third round exit at the Rogers Cup, Karolina Pliskova skipped the Olympics and returned to play at the Cincinnati Masters just before the US Open. Pliskova was the 15^th seed and began her tournament with a straight-set win over future Grand Slam Champion Jelena Ostapenko before seeing off Japan’s Misaki Doi in the third round to reach the quarter-finals.

In the quarters, the Czech won a tense battle against 7^th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets to qualify for the semi-finals where she comfortably defeated 4^th seed Garbine Muguruza (dropping only four games in the process) to reach the final. In the final, she was up against top seed Angelique Kerber who would be crowned the new World No. 1 provided she won the match.

The match proved to be completely one-sided as Pliskova won the first set 6-3 before trouncing her German opponent in the second set 6-1 to win her maiden WTA Premier 5 title. Pliskova’s win not only prevented Kerber from reaching the summit of the rankings but also extended Serena Williams’ stay at the top to 186 consecutive weeks, thus breaking Steffi Graf’s record of 185 consecutive weeks at the top of the WTA rankings.