Rennae Stubbs Was Pivotal in Karolina Pliskova's Dramatic Victory at Brisbane

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Rennae Stubbs Was Pivotal in Karolina Pliskova's Dramatic Victory at Brisbane

By: Chris Oddo

Having Rennae Stubbs as a coach in 2019 is already paying big dividends for Karolina Pliskova. The Czech battled past Lesia Tsurenko in three sets on Sunday in Brisbane to claim her 12th career title, and she gave Stubbs big credit for helping her get over the hump against a very difficult opponent.

“I have to say Rennae helped me quite a bit today,” Pliskova said, “because I don’t want to say I would not do it without her but it was just much easier—she helped me just to get motivated a little bit more, to get going a little more, I was just too slow I felt, like a set and a half.”

Pliskova elaborated, saying:

“It was actually that she believed I could still win it. I felt there is no chance that I could win this match. Of course I tried, but I felt so far away from playing good tennis tonight. … But she said ‘I am absolutely sure you can win this match’ which gave me some confidence and belief that I can do it and yeah, that’s what I did, I just tried to stay close to her, not to go two, three games away – and I believe I am going to get my chance.”

Hear the coaching time-out between @rennaestubbs and @KaPliskova that re-ignited Karolina's fighting spirit during the #BrisbaneTennis final pic.twitter.com/FHsydlKkpx
— #BrisbaneTennis (@BrisbaneTennis) January 6, 2019

Stubbs reminded Pliskova during the coaching timeout after the seventh game of the second set that Tsurenko would be extremely nervous trying to close out what would have been her first Premier title.

The Czech took Stubbs’ advice to heart.

“It’s tough to serve out a tournament, every match is tough to close, but especially I think she never won a title like this so I knew there was going to be a chance at the end of the second set,” Pliskova said.

Pliskova, who rises to No.7 in the WTA rankings, says that the comeback win will help her this season, especially when she finds herself in difficult situations.

“When you are able to turn these matches around it will give you some extra and different confidence,” she said. “It’s going to happen in Grand Slams for sure because it’s for two weeks so you cannot play amazing for two weeks, you cannot feel amazing—I think I just dug deep today and that’s important. Of course I think one of these matches is going to come at a Grand Slam but if I try to stay in there I’m going to have a big chance to go through it.”

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