LONDON—Tuesday’s action on Centre Court commenced with a potentially crackling match between two former number ones. In one corner stood the dangerous and vocal floater, Victoria Azarenka. Her opponent, the opaque but lethal seventh-seed, Karolina Pliskova.
But in the end, much of the drama was severely blunted. With the precision of a dentist filling a cavity, Pliskova took 72 minutes to anaesthetize Azarenka, 6-3, 6-3, and reach the third round of Wimbledon for the first time in her career.
Said Pliskova, “It was so far one of my best matches on grass, for sure. I mean, she's always tough, so it's never easy.”
The most notable contrast in this matchup tilted around volume. Azarenka is the one with the ceaseless grunt, the vocal fuel that has taken her to two Grand Slam singles titles. In full glory, Azarenka nicely blends will and skill, excellent movement, fine groundstrokes (the backhand most of all) and a spirited brand of intensity.
Pliskova offers nothing. Not a sound, nary a fist pump, scarcely a scurry. Azarenka is a chase scene, a New York City cop who plops the siren on top of the car and careens through the streets. Pliskova is pure stealth, that silent assassin who lurks in the shadows and then fires a fatal dart. In the spirit of such liquid-smooth players with Czech roots as Martina Hingis and Miloslav Mecir, Pliskova is quite adept at redirecting the ball, delaying her swing until the last minute and then rocketing a down-the-line laser. Even when she misses—often in a languid, lazy manner—Pliskova conducts herself with unsettling tranquility.
“You do not need to leave your room,” said another Czech, the writer Franz Kafka. “Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
Or in tennis terms, why run when you can simply be there?
Addressing Pliskova’s skills, Azarenka said, “She has a kind of like heavy, flat game, and I think she doesn't look that she's very fast, but I think she has a good anticipation of where the ball is going.”
WATCH—Match point from Pliskova's win over Azarenka: