Karolina survived a real test by the young American and saving the day for the Pliskova family after sister Kristyna's exit against fellow Czech Kvitova. Karolina is a former world number one and was a Wimbledon finalist in this year , its not hard to see why. She struck a MIND BOGGLING 24 ACES in this one, the most in a match at the Open in 23 years. Keeping things simple enough saved her the ignominy of rallying with Amanda, who was slightly the better player in that regard. Check out the line challenge by Amanda at 2-1 first set first point. I can only blame it on inexperience on the part of Anisimova, challenging an obvious "in" at such an early part of the set. The rallies were great to watch , check out this shot from Amanda to save set point on her serve at 5-4(40-30). The backhand had to be almost perfect against the impressive baseline coverage by Karolina, hard and low with the swing of the hip golf style. In the first set. The first set went to a 12th game with a single break enough to put the Czech a set up, both winning their only breaks of serve in the opening set for the entire match.

What makes Pliskova such a fantastic server? She and her sister have a height of 1.87 meters meaning when she serves the ball hits the court at a higher angle than most players can. She however had moments in the second set whereby she didn't get the placement right on second serve although she served an impressive 70% on first serve. Check out 6-6(2-1) the first breaker. Amanda hit some of her best shots in that breaker. She was no slouch on serve too. You would think her first serve percentage was lower than Karolina, think again. She served 73%. Karolina fought hard to at least lose the breaker by a single mini break but her most impressive feat was in the third set breaker, saving match point. So did Amanda too but it was more or less a stay of execution. Check out the net play on 6-5, cutting the court in half giving Karolina nothing to aim at. Best match at the US Open thus far by some margin. Thank goodness the rain and the roof didn't disrupt this one.