Becoming No. 1 in women’s tennis did not happen the way Karolina Pliskova had dreamed it.
She clinched the top ranking five days after losing in the second round of Wimbledon, when Simona Halep, ranked second, lost in the quarterfinals.
Pliskova was in Monaco on vacation with her boyfriend, Michal Hrdlicka, and wanted to clear her mind of tennis thoughts. But she could not avoid messages from friends saying that she was one result away from being No. 1.
So, Pliskova said, she checked the score after Halep’s match on July 11, a 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-4 loss to Johanna Konta, and learned she had become world No.