“You can’t compare today’s girls,” Karolina Pliskova praises Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams for their influence as she criticizes WTA’s lack of promotion efforts

Pliskova revealed that she will probably retire after 2-3 more seasons.

“You can’t compare today’s girls,” Karolina Pliskova praises Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams for their influence as she criticizes WTA’s lack of promotion efforts

Karolina Pliskova (L), Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova (R) (Sources: Tennis.com/Imago)

Czech tennis player Karolina Pliskova said in a recent interview that charismatic figures like Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams have ceased to exist in women’s tennis today. According to the 31-year-old, the WTA star is to blame for not promoting players like Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka. However, it also points to the fact that players in the past, like Serena and Sharapova, were significantly better in many aspects than the current players. 

Now that the two pillars or the faces of women’s tennis have both retired, there is not much evolution in the WTA tour. Pliskova opined that Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova were huge personalities and that today’s players should not be even compared to them. They particularly did a great job marketing women’s tennis as a whole. According to Karolina Pliskova, women’s tennis seems sidelined now. 

Sharapova and Serena were huge personalities, even in the marketing world. You can't compare today's girls with them. And I think that in this situation, the WTA isn't helping much either. It doesn't seem to me that they promote it well. Women's tennis now seems sidelined, not as many people go to it as before. 
Karolina Pliskova in an exclusive interview with isport.blesk.cz

Pliskova said that in her prime, when these players were still active, the level of everything in women’s tennis was higher and that there has been a significant drop in performance in general. 

FS Video

Karolina Pliskova on what can be done to turn things around in WTA 

Upon being asked what can be done to bring about some positive changes in women’s tennis, Pliskova said that she is in the twilight of her career now and she does not really care about changing things anymore. She revealed that the girls (players) have a WhatsApp group and they discuss it but Pliskova prefers not to comment. 

Karolina Pliskova
Karolina Pliskova (Source: Tennis.com)
Girls have groups on WhatsApp, they discuss it. But I don't comment on it, changes take a long time, and I don't want to put energy into it. I'm not at the beginning of my career anymore, so it goes beyond me. I just want to play my few more tournaments.

Karolina Pliskova has a ranking of World No. 38 currently. She also revealed in the same interview that she will probably play for 2-3 more years before finally retiring. However, that will completely depend on how the seasons go. 

In case you missed it: