Unexpected rise to top

Becoming No 1 in women’s tennis did not happen the way Karolina Pliskova had dreamed it.

She clinched the top ranking five days after losing in the second round of Wimbledon, when Simona Halep, ranked second, lost in the quarterfinals.

Pliskova was in Monaco on vacation with her boyfriend, Michal Hrdlicka, and wanted to clear her mind of tennis thoughts. But she could not avoid messages from friends saying that she was one result away from being No. 1.

So, Pliskova said, she checked the score after Halep’s match on July 11, a 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-4 loss to Johanna Konta, and learned she had become world No. 1.

“It was a little bit of a strange situation,” Pliskova said. “At first I was not really happy or sure if I wanted to get there like this.”

Gradually, her sense of gratification mounted.

“With time passed by, I just felt happy that I got there,” she said. “I was proud. For my family and everybody, it was a quite huge thing in the Czech Republic because I was the first one who got there with Czech nationality.”

Pliskova, 25, has had a relatively quick ascent over the last 12 months. Ranked 17th at this time last year, she rose with a title in Cincinnati and a runner-up finish at the US Open.

Before the Open, Pliskova had not made it past the third round in her 17 previous Grand Slam tournaments. Then she became only the fourth woman to beat both Williams sisters at the same Grand Slam event, ousting Venus in the fourth round and top-ranked Serena in the semifinals.

The ranking points from Cincinnati and New York last year, which will fall off her ranking within the next month, helped form the foundation for her rise. Pliskova started this year ranked No 6.

With no dominant player in women’s tennis this year after Serena Williams went on maternity leave, Pliskova’s steady game of powerful serves and crisp groundstrokes has been enough to claim the top spot. She reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and the semifinals at Roland Garros, and claimed titles at three WTA tournaments.

Blocking out distractions and adversity proved pivotal for Pliskova and her twin sister, Kristyna, who is ranked 37th. In their early teens, prime years in their tennis development, their father, Radek Plisek, was imprisoned for two years on charges related to his failure to paying taxes.

“It was very tough,” Pliskova recalled during an interview in June.

“We were 13, and he was working, so we had all the money from him, all our coaches from him.”

Plisek returned from jail for several years before being incarcerated again in 2013. He served another year behind bars as his daughters ascended through the game’s professional ranks, following their results as best he could from newspapers and word-of-mouth. Pliskova said the painful experiences of separation made her and her family stronger.

“We somehow found a way,” she said. “I don’t think there is any player who has everything coming easy, you know? I think for me, I don’t regret it. Obviously we were missing him, but it gave us — my family, my mother, my sister — it gave us so much power to fight. Personally, for me, it helped a lot.

“I think, You just have to find a different way. Until then, we had everything, and then in one moment we didn’t have anything.”

The next goal for Pliskova is to win a Grand Slam title.

“I think that’s the only thing I’m missing right now,” Pliskova said of a Grand Slam championship.

“Those are the titles you play for, so I’d like to have a Grand Slam title in my life, and I’ll do my best to do it.”