The serve came first, everything else followed. Karolina Pliskova rode that flat, effortless delivery to a 2016 US Open final, beating Serena Williams in the semi-finals before losing in three sets to Angelique Kerber. The next July she became world No. 1 for eight weeks, the first Czech woman to hold the ranking and the sixth player to get there without a major. Her 17 career titles came on all three surfaces, but the slams kept slipping: four semi-finals, two finals, no trophy.
In 2021 she pushed Ashleigh Barty to a third set in the Wimbledon final. Tennis runs in the family: her identical twin Kristyna, two minutes older, played the tour alongside her, a left-hander to Karolina's right. Then an awkward landing at the 2024 US Open wrecked her left ankle, costing her two surgeries and more than a year, but she returned in early 2026, reached the third round of the Australian Open within weeks, and plays on at 34 with the ankle stiff and the serve intact.
Thirty-seven. That is how many places Katerina Siniakova climbed in the latest WTA rankings, from No. 86 to No. 49, the biggest move of the week and one of three women who climbed into the top 50.
Ranking taleTwenty-six. That is how many places Talia Gibson climbed in the WTA rankings, from No. 63 to a career-high No. 37, the biggest move inside the top 100 and enough to carry her into the top 50 at 22. She was not alone: Australia took the two biggest top-100 climbs, Gibson's and Maya Joint's, and sent a second woman, Kimberly Birrell, into the top 50.
Ranking tale