Her return at lower-tier tournaments showed her that the road back would be more complicated than it first seemed.<\/p>\n
“There was even a moment when I thought I might never come back at all. It wasn\u2019t just my foot that hurt- my back, my arm, everything was hurting. It just didn\u2019t make sense,” she admitted in an interview before flying to Australia, where she\u2019ll try for another restart.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re heading to a place where you\u2019ve usually done well in the past. What are your expectations for this year\u2019s trip to Australia?<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s always been my favourite part of the season, I\u2019ve always enjoyed all the tournaments there. So I\u2019m even more excited, especially since I couldn\u2019t be there last year.<\/p>\n
“But I have no expectations, I\u2019m just looking forward to it. Not just the tournaments, but the whole atmosphere. You never know when it might be your last time there. I don\u2019t think I\u2019d ever go back just to visit after my career is over.”<\/p>\n
What\u2019s your tournament schedule?<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m starting in Brisbane, as I have most years. I\u2019ve usually done quite well there, so I\u2019m using my protected ranking for that tournament. Then it\u2019s Adelaide, and finally Melbourne. So, three tournaments.”<\/p>\n
![\"Lehecka](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/14643e94-329b-4348-b37c-ed9b6e1d9ad6.jpg\" "\\"Lehecka")
Lehecka and Pliskova before flying to Australia\u010cTK \/ \u0160ulov\u00e1 Kate\u0159ina<\/p>\n
Your first comeback in the autumn didn\u2019t go too well. Do you feel things could be better this time?<\/p>\n
“I have to say, things have settled down a bit. Maybe I started a little too soon in the autumn. My foot really wasn\u2019t ready, and neither was my body. Now it\u2019s better. I got through almost all of December without major problems.<\/p>\n
“Of course, matches are a different story, and I really miss them. I\u2019m not under any illusions that everything will go smoothly – it might not be perfect. But I\u2019ve trained quite a lot, even if not as much as when I was younger. Still, I believe I\u2019m ready.”<\/p>\n
But you also mentioned you had doubts about coming back?<\/p>\n
“Yes. I was questioning whether it was worth it. But then I gave myself a bit of space, some distance, and started training a bit differently. That\u2019s also why I decided I wanted to give the start of the year another try.”<\/p>\n
How was your preparation different this time?<\/p>\n
“I played a lot of practice matches, which gave me some optimism. I played twice with Ekaterina Alexandrova<\/a> and also with Nikola Bartunkova<\/a>. In Tenerife, I played two or three matches, including against Julia Grabher<\/a>, and then in Prague with Katka (Katerina) Siniakova<\/a>.<\/p>\n “I used to lose most of my practice matches, but this time almost all of them went well. That was a nice surprise. I don\u2019t want to judge too much based on practice, but when I tried to come back in the autumn, I played terribly and barely won a set. Now I feel much better about it.”<\/p>\n For a year and a half, you watched your rivals from afar. Do you think women\u2019s tennis has changed?<\/p>\n “I think it\u2019s always evolving, and everything seems to be getting faster. Everyone is working hard, even if there aren\u2019t huge leaps. The top players have been pretty stable for a few years, but there are some new young faces.<\/p>\n “There aren\u2019t many players now who just run and return balls – the trend is more towards fast tennis without long rallies. The game is more about power and speed, and there\u2019s not much time to think, which could actually be a slight advantage for me.”<\/p>\n Do you have any plans for after Australia?<\/p>\n “No, I don\u2019t. Honestly, I want to wait and see how things go in Australia, and then maybe we\u2019ll make a longer-term plan. I\u2019ll just see how the matches go, how I feel mentally and physically, and how much I want to keep going.<\/p>\n “I definitely don\u2019t want to force myself. So if I\u2019m not physically okay, I know it wouldn\u2019t make sense to continue.”<\/p>\n But you still have plenty of automatic entries with your protected ranking, right?<\/p>\n “I know, I haven\u2019t used any yet. I\u2019ve also been offered a lot of wild cards, so I could play plenty of tournaments. But I really only want to play if I can do it pain-free and if I\u2019m enjoying it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karolina Pliskova was once world number one and played in two Grand Slam finals, but now she\u2019s trying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":{"0":"post-378936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Karolina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/a3419432-283a-40d3-9918-72b4852255c8.jpg\" "\\"Karolina")
Karolina Pliskova’s recent injury recordFlashscore<\/p>\n