Karolina rises to World No 1 after defeat
LONDON: Czech Karolina Pliskova rose to the top of the WTA rankings without striking a ball on Tuesday as results at Wimbledon saw her overhaul Germany’s Angelique Kerber.
By a quirk of the points-based ranking system the 25-year-old rose to the summit — the 23rd player to do so — thanks to Simona Halep’s quarter-final loss to Johanna Konta.
Romanian Simona would have become World No 1 had she beaten the Briton but went down 67(2), 7-6(5), 6-4.
Bizarrely Karolina, seeded three at Wimbledon, lost in the second round to Magdalena Rybarikova but her consistent results this year, including reaching the French Open semi-finals, means she will be No 1 when the rankings are updated on Monday.
“Although right now I am not celebrating a victory on the court, I have become the World No 1. And this really means a lot to me. Actually, I can’t even realize what I have achieved,” Karolina wrote in a post on Instagram.
Despite never having won a Grand Slam tournament, the Monte-Carlo based player becomes the first Czech to be No 1 since the rankings were introduced in 1975.
Czech-born Martina Navratilova, who won 18 singles majors, became No 1 in 1978 but was representing the US by then.
“Karolina is an exemplary athlete on and off the court and she truly deserves this fantastic mo- ment in her career,” WTA CEO and chairman Steve Simon said in a statement.
Karolina has won three titles this year, in Brisbane, Doha and the Wimbledon warm-up event at Eastbourne.
Angelique, who spent a total of 34 weeks as World No 1, needed to reach the Wimbledon final to have a chance of hanging on to the top spot, but was beaten by Spain’s Garbine Muguruza in the last 16 on Monday.
For Simona it is a case of try and try again.
She would have become No 1 had she beaten Jelena Ostapenko in the French Open final and faltered again against Johanna on Tuesday after coming within two points of victory. Reuters