Karolina Pliskova: Garcia was just playing super aggressive, going for her shots

Tennis - Top seeded Karolina Pliskova dismissed suggestions that she was under pressure to live up to her top seeding or played poorly during her second round loss to the Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia on Wednesday. Instead, she credited her French opponent for playing a good match.

Former World No. 4 Garcia hit 30 winners as she defeated the Czechwoman 6-1 7-6(2) to advance to the third round in New York where she will meet American Jennifer Brady.

Speaking to the press after her loss in New York, Pliskova said, "No, zero pressure from this for me. This (the top seeding) is nothing to do with my loss today. I think was actually not none of those matches which I lost was that bad. I think there are just some girls which are playing good tennis. I think Garcia is one of them.

Karolina Pliskova says opponent played supper aggressive and was going for her shots

When asked what she would like to change about her performance, the 28 year old Czech pointed out to the missed set point she had in the second set. "I had one chance in the second set, which was on her serve. So it's not like I was 5-2 up or serving for the match. That's quite different, I would say. But anyway, I think I didn't play that bad. Maybe you saw different match. I thought she played great tennis in the first set. She was just playing super aggressive, going for her shots. I maybe didn't play my best. I didn't serve that great, especially early in the match. But that's how it is sometimes. I'm not a robot, so I don't have to play every day amazing."

Pliskova says she plans to now head back to Europe for the clay court season and does not see any reason to star panicking after her latest loss.  “I'm in Rome, after in Strasbourg, too, then of course Paris. I think I'm going to start to practice as early as possible on clay. I didn't play matches for a while, so I think maybe it can take some time to get back in the tournament rhythm. Hopefully this can happen on clay. There's going to be hopefully more tournaments after Paris so we can just play a little more. Not really looking for off-season this time. Let's see. I mean, we just started. I think there is no reason to panic really.

Karolina Pliskova is currently ranked No. 3 in the world and is a former finalist at the US Open in 2016.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3bsm94d