Karolina Pliskova arrived in Australia last month with a new coach but the same goal: to finally capture that maiden Grand Slam title that has eluded her so far in her trophy-laden career.
The former world No.1, seeded sixth this fortnight, is making her eighth appearance at Melbourne Park, and is contesting her 34th consecutive main draw at a major.
The ‘Ace Queen’, as she is aptly nicknamed, has been regular fixture in the world’s top 10 since 2015. She owns 16 career titles, has reached the final of a Grand Slam (US Open 2016) and occupied the top spot for eight weeks in 2017.
Pliskova has beaten Serena Williams twice at the majors – including at the Australian Open en route to the semifinals in 2019 – and has the kind of power game that keeps the outcome of a match almost exclusively dependent on her own racquet.
She has hoisted the winner’s trophy at some of the most prestigious tournaments on tour, like Rome, Cincinnati and Doha, but never at the majors. Her new coach Sascha Bajin is hoping he can help her change that.
“I think her goal was to really win a slam, I think that’s something she really wants to do, we don’t need to make a secret about it. And she thinks that hopefully I’ll be the man to help her with that,” Bajin told ausopen.com.
The German has worked with several top players in the past, both as a hitting partner and later as a coach. He helped guide Naomi Osaka to her first two Grand Slam titles, and his most recent partnership prior to joining Team Pliskova was with Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska.
“I think I’ve proven it in the past that I am capable as a coach of doing it and I hope that I can maybe find something within her to unlock whatever’s holding her back from playing the best tennis in those slams, because she’s won everything else, she’s beaten everybody else already,” he added.
“But somehow in these slams it just never happened, and now we’re just focused on winning the big ones. Hopefully I’ll be able to help her there.”
Despite both of them being around the tour for several years, Bajin did not know Pliskova that well before teaming up with her. He jokes that she’s been like a “ghost” on the circuit because she doesn’t hang around the courts too long between matches and practices.
They started their preseason together late November in Marbella, and Bajin says they did the best they could with the time that they had, although some physical issues slightly affected the work they were doing.
“I discovered that she actually has jokes, she’s funny. So I’m really happy about that. It’s fun to be around her, it’s very easy to talk to her,” he said of the 28-year-old Czech.
“I was surprised with what a good volley game she has, actually. She’s really good at the net, I was very surprised to see that. So that’s definitely something we want to incorporate on court, to go more to the net and finish shots at the net and not to be running around too much from the baseline.”
Technical work aside, Bajin believes a shift in the mental approach is what could lead Pliskova to her first Grand Slam triumph. A focus on enjoying the challenge and the atmosphere of a major is key, he says.
“I just don’t want her to see the slam as anything special, as anything different than any other tournament; she has to kind of get away from that,” he explains.
“I think she has been treating it different, I think she took an approach of kind of wanting to avoid talking about winning a slam and now I’m kind of just throwing jokes out there like, ‘You know we’re here win this one, we’re here win this one’. To kind of subconsciously get her to really believe that just talking more about it will make her more relaxed.
“I think it is something she wanted for so long, so bad, and then it becomes sort of a, not an obsession, but becomes something that it shouldn’t be, it becomes more of a pressure type of thing than just actually being the thing you want to play for.
“Like enjoying it more than playing in Miami because it is a slam, you should enjoy yourself more here than anywhere else. And that’s what I kind of want to do with her, like find this joyful, enjoying type of thing while knowing that we’re here for the win for sure.”
One of Pliskova’s most impressive characteristics is how honest and straightforward she is in press conferences and with the people around her.
Bajin describes her as an excellent communicator, which, in turn, gives him the confidence and freedom to discuss any matter with her.
“She has learned to just talk about problems more, it is a more natural thing,” he says.
“I think it also comes from home, she lives with her husband, a marriage already alone brings these types of communications, these kind of talks and so I think that’s why she’s so good and easy to talk to about tennis things.
“Whereas with younger girls [I have worked with in the past] you have to find a way to, not lure them into uncomfortable conversation, but set it up in a right way and I think this is really one of the biggest differences that I have now experienced with this new partnership – just the way that we can communicate, the way I can talk to her, her honesty, the open mindset.
“And for her to be that open, it’s pretty good, because if you want to learn new stuff and new things you have to be open and you have to be willing to talk about these uncomfortable topics in a relaxed type of way.
“I’m here to help her, her husband’s here to help her, but if there’s something in the air you kind of still want to talk about, it can get ugly. But with her it really doesn’t. And that’s actually a beautiful and good thing.”
Pliskova has a tricky test ahead of her in the second round on Thursday in the form of Danielle Collins, who defeated the world No.6 in two tiebreak sets last week in the Yarra Valley Classic.
Pliskova can draw lots of confidence though from her dominant 6-0 6-2 47-minute victory over Jasmine Paolini in the Australian Open first round on Tuesday.
“This one was something that she really needed because she hasn’t had a clear, solid win for a while now,” says Bajin.
We’ll find out how it all unfolds first thing on Rod Laver Arena on Thursday.