Seventh seeded Venus Williams has been beaten by Karolina Pliskova of Czech Republic 6-4, 4-6 and 7-6 (7-3) and denied a 36th grand slam quarterfinal.
Venus will surely have a miserable night, tormented by regrets. She could have wrapped up the match in two straight sets after winning the first set and leading in the second 3-1 before she let the lead slip and Pliskova went ahead to win the set and tied the game 1-1.
Venus also had a match-ball at 5-4 but could not take it.”I really played the perfect point there,” Williams said about her chance to end things while up 5-4, and Pliskova serving at 30-40, “and she managed to stay alive,” Venus said.
At 5-5 she was 30-0 up but again lost her serve and Pliskova went into the lead 6-5. And serving for the match, the Czech player was 40-0 up but Venus fought back to re-break and take the set to tie-break.
Pliskova served beautifully and never gave Venus a chance, winning the tie-break 7-3 to qualify for her first grand slam quarter-final.
The tenth seed had been in fine form. She won the biggest title of her career in the run-up to the US Open by demolishing Svetlana Kuznetsova, Garbine Muguruza and Angelique Kerber to take the Premier-5 title at the Western and Southern Open. In fact, she was yet to drop a set before the game against Venus.
The American, at 36, would have been the oldest woman to reach the quarterfinals at any major since Martina Navratilova was 37 at Wimbledon in 1994.
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