Karolina Pliskova puts near miss in past after reaching US Open quarter-finals

Karolina Pliskova believes she is benefiting from her near miss after racing into the quarter-finals of the US Open.

After saving match point in her third-round meeting with Zhang Shuai, the world number one needed just 46 minutes to beat Jennifer Brady 6-1 6-0.

Pliskova rated the performance as one of her best matches of the year, and said: “I think because of this match (against Zhang) I felt like this today, that I went through this one.

“Sometimes you just need to have some of those matches where you can just really get through it. You don’t even know why, but the game improves so much.

“I didn’t change anything. I didn’t even practise yesterday. So there is nothing really what I did different. But I just felt much better.

“Hopefully I’m going to enjoy the tennis like I was doing today. I was not really enjoying myself the first three matches. I’d like to start to enjoying it a little bit more.”

This was much more like the Pliskova who defeated both Williams sisters to reach her first grand slam final at Flushing Meadows 12 months ago.

Poor Brady, an American through to the last 16 here for the first time, found Arthur Ashe Stadium an unforgiving place.

Pliskova admitted she has been struggling with the pressure of having the number one next to her name but she got off to a good start here and played freely.

By the time the pair shook hands, Pliskova had thumped 23 winners, won 92 per cent of points on her first serve and made just nine unforced errors.

With Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza knocked out on Sunday night by Petra Kvitova, this now appears a golden chance for the Czech to win her maiden grand slam title.

Pliskova’s next opponent will be 20th seed Coco Vandeweghe, who reached her third grand slam quarter-final of the season with a 6-4 7-6 (7/2) victory over Lucie Safarova.

The 25-year-old made it all the way to the semi-finals in Australia before losing to Venus Williams and also made the last eight at Wimbledon.

Vandeweghe is supremely confident and divides opinion, and it appears there is no love lost with Pliskova.

Asked about the similarities in their games, the Czech said: “Obviously I think it’s the speed of the shots, but otherwise, I would not really put me and her together. Like not even personally.

“We both have the plan to play aggressive, but I think she’s a little bit, not messy sometimes, but she’s just going for her shots. Even if she misses five metres out, she doesn’t care, so it’s different. It’s not my game style.”

Qualifier Kaia Kanepi continued her brilliant run in New York with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Daria Kasatkina.

Kanepi is no stranger to the latter stages of grand slams but has plummeted down the rankings because of injury and illness and needed to use her protected ranking just to enter qualifying.

Seven matches later, the Estonian will face either fourth seed Elina Svitolina or Madison Keys in the last eight.