Former No. 1 Plíšková faces stumbling block in comeback: Australian Open champion Keys

Karolina Pliskova is making a comeback, and the tennis world's former No. 1-ranked woman is at the Australian Open and doing it the hard way.

Plíšková is coming off surgery on her left ankle following an injury, played only three matches last year after much longer than expected recovery, and now she's preparing for a third-round match against defending Australian Open champion Madison Keys.

She defeated another American, 2017 U.S. Open winner Sloane Stephens, in the first round. Then she got by 23-year-old Indonesian Janice Tjen 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday to set up the match with Keys.

“It wasn't easy,” Plíšková said of the victory playing an opponent she had not faced before.

Now comes the defending champion.

“I mean, looking forward to that,” said Plíšková, who is into the third round of a major for the first time since the 2023 Australian Open. She recalled facing Keys a few years ago at a smaller tournament in Australia.

“So of course, a lot of things have changed,” she said. “She won the Australian Open here last year. I was away for some time.”

Plíšková was the world's No. 1 ranked player in 2017, and was the losing finalist at Wimbledon in 2021 and at the U.S. Open in 2016. She also reached two other Grand Slam semifinals — the French Open in 2017 and Australia in 2019.

Surgery following the 2024 U.S. Open has slowed her career. Now it's about rebuilding confidence and getting competition. Her ranking plummetted to 1,057 because of all the missed tournaments, and she's competing at Melbourne Park on a protected ranking.

“After such a long injury, you just hope to have some matches,” she said. “Sometimes you just don't know. You can come to a big tournament and you can have one of the top seeds in the first round.”

“It helped,” she added, “that I didn't have any of that. ... I think matches always help, just the confidence of playing matches and making the decisions."

The resume is there. But now her tennis must be ready for Keys, who defeated fellow American Ashlyn Krueger 6-1, 7-5 on Thursday.

“I will face the top seed now,” Plíšková said, “but that's just like any third round. There is nobody really easy. ... She's going to be the favorite here. So I can only surprise, but let's see. I have my weapons and I think it can be a good match."

___

More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis