In career twilight, Ace Queen Karolina Pliskova still quests for Grand Slam crown at US Open

NEW YORK—Karolina Pliskova loves watching tennis.

“For me, it's better than any movie,” she told me back in 2018.

Though the former world No. 1 doesn’t watch as many matches as she used to, she still knows a star when she sees one.

“I like Daniil Medvedev,” she told me last week in Cincinnati, “but for his charisma more than his style of play. I think he’s cool.”

Now 32 and unseeded coming into her 12th US Open, Pliskova has cut back on playing, too, opting for more truncated schedules since injuring her hand ahead of the 2022 season.

“I’m trying to find the balance of not playing every tournament because I would always play full seasons,” she explained after defeating Viktoriya Tomova in a pair of tiebreakers.

The fast courts in Queen City once exponentially rewarded the once and future Ace Queen (who currently sits second behind 2024 Ace Leader Elena Rybakina) and her rigidly precise power game. She won the title in 2016 and made her first Grand Slam final a month later in Flushing Meadows, defeating both Venus and Serena Williams along the way. In 2021, she overcame a longstanding aversion to Wimbledon grass and finish runner-up a second time.

“I feel like the older I get, the more I prefer slower surfaces!” she laughed. “On the other hand, fast conditions should be good with my serve and my flat shots, so, let’s see. If I feel well, confident, and I don’t think too much about the things around me, both can be ok.”

Absent from Pliskova’s arsenal is the momentum she enjoyed at her peak. After an impressive start to the season and nine straight wins from a title run in Cluj-Napoca to the semifinals of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open, the Czech has won just 10 matches—two since reaching a final in Nottingham on grass.

At the moment, women’s and men’s tennis is so open. Anyone can play well in a week, and it can end up not meaning anything the next. Anything is possible. I feel like the game is there, and maybe I need a little more confidence and luck somewhere. Karolina Pliskova

“This year has had a little bit of everything: some good moments and good weeks, and then some worse weeks and others I skipped,” Pliskova assessed in her inimitable staccato.

“There’ve definitely been some good matches but also some tough draws. I felt like I was playing good but then I wouldn’t get the reward because I’d get a tough opponent early in the tournament, like first-second rounds. At the Slams, I was playing good but got tough opponents.”

Indeed, though she exited in the first round of all three major tournaments in 2024, losing to the likes of Elena Rybakina, Elina Svitolina, and a surging Diana Shnaider is hardly evidence of a worrying decline.

She began her US Open swing with a loss in Washington, but she didn’t read much into that either.

“There are some tournaments where you’ve struggled and you’re already going off, like Washington, for me. I think that’s the only tournament I’ve never won a match! So, you go into a tournament like that in not such a good mood.”

She couldn’t convert solid performances against Jessica Pegula in Canada and Mirra Andreeva in Cincinnati into victories, but Pliskova still feels like she’s an ace or two away from rediscovering her best form.

“At the moment, women’s and men’s tennis is so open,” she said. “Anyone can play well in a week, and it can end up not meaning anything the next. Anything is possible. I feel like the game is there, and maybe I need a little more confidence and luck somewhere. All the matches I’ve lost are either in three sets or close sets. It’s not really about the level because I feel like the level is there. I would need maybe two-three matches in a row to catch up. One or two is not enough! So, let’s see.”

Pliskova plans to play at least another year, though even in her increasing number of weeks off she doesn’t allow her mind to move too far from tennis—even as she celebrates a six-year anniversary with husband Michal Hrdlička.

I’m still enjoying tennis. If the day comes that I don’t like it, I’m not here anymore. So, until I stop liking tennis, I’ll do my best. Karolina Pliskova

“You still have to do something. It’s my job, so it’s not like I can go off on vacation. I might be home a little bit more, but I’m still practicing, or if I’m not playing tennis, I’m at the gym or doing treatments.

“I want to compete with the best, so I cannot completely forget about the tour, and it’s my work. I have to try to get fit, so it’s not really about letting things go, mentally.”

Her twin sister Kristyna has already began her next chapter. The former world No. 35 has been off the tour for almost three years, starting a family and making her debut as a commentator.

“I would be interested in doing it too, but only if I could be with her,” Karolina stipulated.

“I think it’d be cool because we played the same sport and we could lend our insights but also our perspective on how we played and how we saw the game. It could be cool, but I’m not there yet.”

Far from a soundproof commentary booth, Pliskova is instead in the middle of Manhattan, home to the tennis courts and Broadway musicals she’s come to love. Her favorite show is The Lion King; in Toronto, she chose an Imagine Dragons concert over a performance of Mamma Mia!, unaware it was no longer on the Great White Way.

“I don’t struggle with motivation, at all, ever. But the tournaments I’ve played well at in years past, I’m coming in with a good mood and that does improve my level of tennis because I’ve played well here and that puts me on a good wave.”

Given her luck of late, Pliskova is sure to be a tough first round for one of the field’s top seeds. If not, the former finalist will, like last year, be relegated to an outer court—a reality that, at the time, bothered me way more than it did her.

“I’m still enjoying tennis,” she said, as reassuringly as her monotone allows. “If the day comes that I don’t like it, I’m not here anymore. So, until I stop liking tennis, I’ll do my best.”

As long as tennis remains a game worth playing, Karolina Pliskova, the best player of her generation yet to win a Slam, remains a player worth watching.