The Top Matches of 2016, No. 8: Pliskova d. Venus Williams (U.S. Open)

There are tough crowds, and then there are going-up-against-Venus-Williams-at-the-U.S.-Open crowds. In her youth, Venus wasn’t always the favorite in the Big Apple. But as the future Hall of Famer has entered her mid-30s, and taken on full-fledged legend status, New York tennis fans have made up for their earlier oversight with a vengeance. Williams debuted at Flushing Meadows as a 17-year-old in 1997, the same year that Ashe Stadium opened. Now that she’s 36, it’s not too much of an exaggeration to call the arena The House That Venus Built.

In 2014, the crowd in Ashe Stadium roared so loudly for Venus against Sara Errani that the Italian went ahead and shushed them, Dikembe Mutumbo style, when it was over and she had won. This past September it was Karolina Pliskova’s turn to enter the House of Venus, and it was her turn to quiet the faithful. In one of the year’s steeliest performances, the Czech held off Williams and a Sunday afternoon crowd of 23,000 to win their fourth-round match 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3). The 23-year-old was all alone out there, but she emerged triumphant. Four days later she did it again, beating Venus’ sister, Serena—in front of a similarly one-sided audience—to reach her first Grand Slam final.

The best match of Pliskova’s breakthrough run, and one of the tensest contests of the season, was her win over Venus. Here’s a look at the highlights from our eighth-best match of 2016.

—Thirteen years and seven Grand Slam titles separate Venus and Pliskova, but there are similarities between them. Both women are 6’1 and long-legged, both have powerful serves—they would finish this match with eight aces apiece—and both like to hit hard and flat whenever possible. On this afternoon they matched each other shot for shot. Pliskova won 107 points to Venus’ 106.

—This wasn’t Venus’ finest season. She dropped from No. 7 to No. 17 in the rankings, lost in the first round six times and failed to medal in singles at the Olympics, her favorite event. (Though she did walk away with a silver in mixed doubles.) But she did put it together at the majors, reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon and the fourth round at the French Open and U.S. Open. At the All England Club, she also transformed herself into a font of pithy wisdom.

“The first time you win, nobody picks you,” she said. “The last time you win, nobody picks you. You’ve got to pick yourself.”

It was the year’s finest quote.

For the first set-and-a-half against Pliskova, a relentless Venus looked like the pick to win this match. She came out firing aces and forehand winners, and finishing points with deft touch at the net.

—Then Venus relented. If you’ve watched her over the years, you know how quickly she can go from dominating to struggling—it just takes one bad game to turn a good run around. In this match, that game came at 3-1 in the second set. At 30-30, Pliskova stayed patient, and Venus finally shanked a forehand. Pliskova won the second set.

—In the third, it was Venus’ turn to come back from 1-3 down. As the third set progressed and the score slowly tightened, the tension in the arena became, as the cliché goes, unbearable—the humid New York air really was thick with it.

Venus and Pliskova, whose low-margin missiles elicited gasps from the audience, gave us a match worthy of the moment—this was tennis as a high-wire act. That was especially true of Pliskova, whose perfect timing generates a stunning amount of pace with seemingly little effort. Like her countryman Tomas Berdych when he connects on a ball, Pliskova’s shots appear to pick up speed after they cross the net.

At 4-4, the two women staged an epic game that Williams finally won. But when Venus reached match point at 5-4, Pliskova fearlessly sent a backhand into one corner and a swing volley into the other for a winner. At 5-5, Pliskova benefited from a net-cord winner on a passing shot. At 5-6, it was Venus’ turn to save three match points and send the match to a fitting final-set breaker.

—That was great news for the crowd, but Venus fans had to be worried; she can struggle in tiebreakers, and she did here. After two hours and 20 minutes of high-wire tennis, Venus finally fell off the tightrope. With everything on the line, she couldn’t find the court, and Pliskova could.

“That was the biggest stage that I’ve played,” said the always-cool Pliskova, who never let the Open’s fans see her sweat. “I wanted to beat her, not the crowd. [It’s] impossible to beat 23,000 people.”

Impossible? Not on this day.