Roland Garros | It was one of the worst draws for me, said Plíšková after a quick elimination

“There are a few tough first rounds, for example Muška (Karolína Muchová) would also be difficult for the first round. There are girls who were a year or two back in the top 10, top 20 and now they are unseeded. Sloane is one of the first unseeded and for me, it was perhaps one of the worst draws. But there’s no point in talking about it,” Plíšková said.

Against the 30th player in the world, Stephens, the native of Loun could not make a breakthrough for a long time. She even got a “canary” in the first set, which happened to her at a Grand Slam only seven years ago at Wimbledon. “At 0:3, 0:4, 0:5 it’s hard to play the tennis I should be playing. I had a lot of chances in both sets, so it could at least reach the third set. Some points were nice for people, but it wasn’t very nice tennis from my side,” she stated.

In recent weeks, Pliskova was limited by a sore knee, but she was ready before the tournament in Paris. She had no problems during the match. “The last few weeks have been tough. Clay has never been the number one surface for me, although I have had some success on it. In Stuttgart, where it is indoor and the surface is fast, I played excellently. Unfortunately, something happened to my knee there, but I wouldn’t discuss it completely. It was fine now. The last two defeats weren’t because of the knee,” Plíšková didn’t look for excuses.

However, after a promising start to the clay part of the season, she felt the lack of play. “Now it was so uneventful. I played half and half didn’t. It wasn’t ideal, I slowed down. I’m glad that the clay is over. Now there are grass tournaments, then concrete again. So the better part of the season is ahead of me,” she added.

She lost her fifth of six head-to-head matches with Stephens. At Roland Garros, she was also eliminated two years ago in the 2nd round. “Today it looked similar to then, only the result of the sets was a bit different. She likes my game. I beat her somewhere, but she is a special player. If she tries, she could be in the top 10,” explained Plíšková. “She doesn’t have a weakness in game or movement. She doesn’t have total weapons, but she’s terribly uncomfortable on clay. You can see that she likes it here and that it suits her. Everything played more in her favor and I didn’t play well,” added the former world number one.

She was knocked out at Roland Garros for the first time since 2016, but in the previous three years the tournament ended for her in the second round. “I guess it doesn’t matter if I lose in the first or the second. Sometimes it also depends on who you get as an opponent. I don’t want to say it’s a coincidence that I haven’t lost in the first round for so long, but sometimes the first or second round doesn’t matter so much to me “I always consider advancing to the second week a success,” she noted.

After an early end at Roland Garros, he is now looking forward to the grass part of the season. “Clay is of course not my favorite surface, and I’ve had quite a few successes on grass. So if I ignore last year, which was all weird due to injuries, I believe that this year will be better and I will do well,” Plíšková added.