World No. 1 Karolina Pliskova fell to Caroline Wozniacki in an almost three-hour quarterfinal in Toronto, saying that Wozniacki used her pace against her.
Wozniacki is now 5-2 against Pliskova, and they have split their four meetings this season: The Dane came out on top at Miami and Toronto, and the Czech won at Doha and Eastbourne.
Pliskova says Wozniacki has improved her first serve, and that she played “definitely serving the best what I've played so far.”
“The first serve was quite good. A few aces and even the percentage was pretty high. So I think was definitely serving the best what I've played so far with her,” Pliskova said.
Pliskova added that Wozniacki likes playing the big hitters, saying, "My game what I'm playing, I'm playing pretty fast. So some of the girls like it more than to play somebody who is playing slowly and they have to play by themselves. She's using a little bit my power from the strokes and that's why we always have good matches.”
Neither Pliskova or No. 6 Wozniacki have won a Grand Slam, but both of them have reached the final at the US Open. Wozniacki has reached five finals this year, and lost all of them.
The 23-year-old Pliskova said when she was up 4-2 in the third, she backed off.
“I didn't play well, but [Wozniacki] just put everything back, even my serves, even some of the groundstrokes. So it was tough for me to close it. It's tough to play someone like this,” Pliskova said. “All those girls like [Simona] Halep, playing out there and defending out there no matter what.
"And you still have to go for your shots … even [if] it's close, even if you go after two hours in the match,” she added. “And it's just tough sometimes to do only the winners and be the one who is aggressive.”
