{"id":422035,"date":"2026-01-22T02:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T02:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/422035\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T02:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T02:54:11","slug":"karolina-pliskovas-exit-strategy-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/422035\/","title":{"rendered":"Karolina Pliskova’s Exit Strategy: The Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia \u2014 An oddity emerged in the first round of the Australian Open women\u2019s draw: the first-ever main draw match at a major between two women ranked outside the Top 1000, according to the WTA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But this historically-lowly match was also, remarkably, the only first-round women\u2019s match where both players should be well-known to casual tennis fans.<\/p>\n

On one side was Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion who had come to Melbourne on a 13-match losing streak that dated back to July 2024. The 32-year-old Stephens, ranked 1,102nd, had arrived a week earlier in Melbourne for the qualifying draw, where she strung together her first three wins in a long time to book a spot in the main draw.<\/p>\n

Stephens played well in Melbourne, but lost to a rival she had played way back in the 2010 U.S. Open girls\u2019 singles draw: 1,057th-ranked Karolina Pliskova, a former No. 1 who twice came within a set of winning a major title, falling in the 2016 U.S. Open final and the 2021 Wimbledon final.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

33-year-old Pliskova won the match 7-6(7), 6-2, her first win at a major since a catastrophic left ankle injury at the 2024 U.S. Open that nearly ended her career\u2014in large part because of an infection she got from the first of two surgeries she had on the joint<\/a>. The injury and its lingering complications, she acknowledges, might leave her with very little remaining in her comeback.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo plans at the moment,\u201d Pliskova said in her press conference of possible play beyond Australia. \u201cI would like to play a little bit more, but everything depends on how I will react. This is the first match, so I don\u2019t know how I\u2019ll be tomorrow. I live from day to day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knowing how long she\u2019s been gone, and that she might not have much time left on tour, I was eager and delighted to talk with Pliskova after her first round win. Pliskova has reliably been one of the best player interviewees of my career, speaking with an unvarnished, unpausing monotone of rapid-fire truths and bluntness.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Karolina Pliskova after winning her first round at the 2026 Australian Open. (Photo by Cal Sport Media)<\/p>\n

This quality has raised eyebrows at times. Most memorably, when I interviewed her for <\/a>The New York Times <\/a>at the 2018 U.S. Open<\/a>, her quote about Serena Williams\u2014<\/p>\n

\u201cO.K., she has all the respect from me, but I can beat her, so I\u2019m not worried about her,\u201d Pliskova added about Williams. \u201cShe has a big game, but sometimes she behaves bigger than her game is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014became bulletin board material for the Williams camp, and was trumpeted when Serena beat Pliskova in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Alexis Ohanian, Serena\u2019s husband, delighted her fans with this tweet.<\/p>\n

Pliskova talked with Bounces about how her gift for honesty can have high costs\u2014including recent beef with a Wimbledon champion. We discussed the changes that she\u2019s seen on the tennis tour since her career began more than a decade-and-a-half ago, and also discussed how she feels about what she achieved\u2014and didn\u2019t achieve\u2014in a career that is almost entirely in the rearview mirror.<\/p>\n

To read this interview, and the rest of this 3,400-word post that includes a look at the best matches to watch on Day 5 of the Australian Open\u2014including my thoughts on Naomi Osaka\u2019s much-discussed outfit\u2014please subscribe to Bounces! Thanks! -Ben<\/p>\n

Give a gift subscription<\/a><\/p>\n

Get 20% off a group subscription<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia \u2014 An oddity emerged in the first round of the Australian Open women\u2019s draw: the first-ever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-422035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422035","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=422035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}