Karolina Pliskova is beginning to look dangerous on grass again.
That sentence carries more weight than it might seem. For a former Wimbledon finalist who had fallen outside the top 100 earlier this season, every win on the surface does a little more than move her through a draw. It reminds the tour that the serve, the flat strike and the calm scoreboard presence can still cause damage when the grass is quick enough to reward them.
In Nottingham, Pliskova beat Caty McNally 6-4, 7-6(3) to reach the quarter-finals, coming through a match that was messy, tense and more complicated than the scoreline suggests.
It was not vintage Pliskova in the cleanest sense. There were 41 unforced errors. There were five double faults. There were service games that slipped away and a second set that nearly turned against her.
But there was also the important part.
She won.
And after a strong week at Queen’s Club, followed by two wins in Nottingham, Pliskova’s grass season has started to look like a real comeback story rather than a brief flicker.
Pliskova Builds the Lead, Then Has to Win the Set Twice
The first set should have been simpler.
Pliskova survived a long opening service game, saving a break point before holding for 1-0. She then broke McNally immediately, moved ahead 2-0, and held to love for 3-0. The start was exactly what she needed against a player who had been building momentum on grass herself.
McNally finally got on the board for 3-1 after saving a break point, but Pliskova kept the gap at 4-1 and then broke again for 5-1.
At that point, the set looked finished.
It was not.
McNally broke back for 5-2, then saved set point on her own serve and held for 5-3. Suddenly, Pliskova had to serve for the set again at 5-3, and she could not close it. McNally broke for 5-4, turning a runaway set into something much more nervous.
Then came the correction.
Pliskova broke straight back to take the set 6-4, converting after three more set-point chances. It was not elegant. It was not smooth. But it mattered that she stopped the comeback before it could become a full reset.
Pliskova vs McNally – Set One Stats
| Statistic | Pliskova | McNally |
|---|---|---|
| Dominance Ratio | 1.23 | 0.81 |
| Winners | 12 | 12 |
| Unforced Errors | 19 | 23 |
| Serve Rating | 240 | 191 |
| Aces | 2 | 3 |
| Double Faults | 0 | 1 |
| 1st Serve % | 70% (26/37) | 64% (30/47) |
| 1st Serve Points Won | 58% (15/26) | 57% (17/30) |
| 2nd Serve Points Won | 50% (6/12) | 28% (5/18) |
| Break Points Saved | 50% (2/4) | 67% (6/9) |
| Service Games | 60% (3/5) | 40% (2/5) |
| Ace % | 5.4% | 6.4% |
| Double Fault % | 0% | 2.1% |
| Return Rating | 208 | 182 |
| 1st Return Points Won | 43% (13/30) | 42% (11/26) |
| 2nd Return Points Won | 72% (13/18) | 50% (6/12) |
| Break Points Won | 33% (3/9) | 50% (2/4) |
| Return Games | 60% (3/5) | 40% (2/5) |
| Pressure Points | 41% (11/27) | 59% (16/27) |
| Service Points | 57% (21/37) | 47% (22/47) |
| Return Points | 53% (25/47) | 43% (16/37) |
| Total Points | 55% (46/84) | 45% (38/84) |
| Set 1 Duration | 1h02m | |
McNally Makes the Second Set Awkward
The second set was even stranger.
Pliskova held for 1-0, then the next two games went with serve. At 2-1, she broke McNally for 3-1 and backed it up for 4-1. Once again, the match seemed to be moving her way.
Once again, McNally refused to let it stay simple.
The American held for 4-2, then broke Pliskova to love for 4-3. She held to love for 4-4, and suddenly the rhythm of the set had changed. Pliskova had lost the cushion, and McNally had begun to play with the kind of freedom that made her dangerous during her recent grass wins.
McNally pushed ahead to 5-4 and then had set points on return at 5-4.
Pliskova escaped.
That was the key moment of the second set. She had led 4-1, had been pulled back to 4-5, and was now facing the possibility of a deciding set. Instead, she held for 5-5, then broke for 6-5.
Even then, the match refused to behave.
Serving for it, Pliskova was broken again. The set went to a tie-break.
Pliskova Finds Her Best Tennis When the Match Shrinks
The tie-break was where Pliskova finally imposed order.
She took the first five points, opening a 5-0 lead and cutting through the tension that had built across the second set. McNally recovered a few points, but the damage had been done. Pliskova closed the tie-break 7-3 and finished the match in two sets.
That was the most encouraging part of the win.
Pliskova vs McNally – Set Two Stats
| Statistic | Pliskova | McNally |
|---|---|---|
| Dominance Ratio | 1.10 | 0.91 |
| Winners | 14 | 14 |
| Unforced Errors | 22 | 18 |
| Serve Rating | 224 | 202 |
| Aces | 1 | 2 |
| Double Faults | 5 | 5 |
| 1st Serve % | 70% (28/40) | 69% (29/42) |
| 1st Serve Points Won | 50% (14/28) | 55% (16/29) |
| 2nd Serve Points Won | 58% (7/12) | 31% (4/13) |
| Break Points Saved | 40% (2/5) | 0% (0/3) |
| Service Games | 50% (3/6) | 50% (3/6) |
| Ace % | 2.5% | 4.8% |
| Double Fault % | 12.5% | 11.9% |
| Return Rating | 264 | 202 |
| 1st Return Points Won | 45% (13/29) | 50% (14/28) |
| 2nd Return Points Won | 69% (9/13) | 42% (5/12) |
| Break Points Won | 100% (3/3) | 60% (3/5) |
| Return Games | 50% (3/6) | 50% (3/6) |
| Pressure Points | 69% (9/13) | 31% (4/13) |
| Service Points | 53% (21/40) | 48% (20/42) |
| Return Points | 52% (22/42) | 48% (19/40) |
| Total Points | 52% (43/82) | 48% (39/82) |
| Set 2 Duration | 1h05m | |
The match had been untidy. The second set had nearly slipped. The American had created enough pressure to drag Pliskova into a decider. But when the match narrowed to a tie-break, Pliskova found the cleaner sequence.
The Numbers Show Why Pliskova Had the Edge
The statistics were unusual because several categories looked almost identical.
Both players hit 26 winners. Both made 41 unforced errors. Both had issues on serve. Pliskova struck three aces and five double faults, while McNally hit five aces and six double faults.
But Pliskova’s advantage came in the way she handled second-serve points and return games.
She won 57 percent of her second-serve points. McNally won only 29 percent of hers. That was a huge difference in a match full of breaks and momentum swings.
Pliskova also won 71 percent of points on McNally’s second serve, while McNally won 43 percent on Pliskova’s. That gave the Czech repeated chances to pressure return games, and she took six of 12 break points.
Her dominance ratio was 1.16 to McNally’s 0.86. She also won 89 total points to McNally’s 77.
The pressure points were slightly in McNally’s favour, 11 of 21 to Pliskova’s 10, but Pliskova won the broader battle often enough to avoid paying for that.
McNally’s Strong Grass Run Stalls
For McNally, this was a missed chance after a promising stretch.
She had reached the quarter-finals in ’s-Hertogenbosch, beating Emma Navarro and Solana Sierra before losing to Ajla Tomljanovic. In Nottingham, she opened with a sharp 6-3, 6-0 win over Antonia Ruzic.
That made this match a real test of whether McNally could keep turning grass into opportunity.
She had chances. Plenty of them.
She pulled Pliskova back from 5-1 to 5-4 in the first set. She recovered from 4-1 down in the second. She served her way into the match often enough to make Pliskova uncomfortable, and she created set points at 5-4 in the second set.
But the second serve let her down badly. Winning only nine of 31 second-serve points made the match too difficult to control. Against Pliskova, even a lower-ranked version of Pliskova, that is dangerous territory.
McNally had enough fight to stay close.
She did not have enough control to take the match away.
Pliskova’s Latest 15 Results
| Date | Tournament | Round | Opponent | Result | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2026 | Nottingham | R16 | Caty McNally | Win | 6-4, 7-6(3) |
| Nottingham | R32 | Sara Bejlek | Win | 2-6, 7-6(3), 6-2 | |
| June 2026 | Queen’s Club | QF | Donna Vekic | Loss | 4-6, 6-4, 3-6 |
| Queen’s Club | R16 | Victoria Mboko | Win | 6-2, 3-4 RET | |
| Queen’s Club | R32 | McCartney Kessler | Win | 6-7(1), 6-3, 6-4 | |
| May 2026 | Rome | R16 | Elena Rybakina | Loss | 0-6, 2-6 |
| Rome | R32 | Laura Siegemund | Win | 6-1, 6-4 | |
| Rome | R64 | Jaqueline Cristian | Win | 6-7(5), 7-6(2), 6-4 | |
| Rome | R128 | Jessica Bouzas Maneiro | Win | 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 | |
| April 2026 | Madrid | QF | Anastasia Potapova | Loss | 1-6, 7-6(4), 3-6 |
| Madrid | R16 | Solana Sierra | Win | 6-4, 6-3 | |
| Madrid | R32 | Elise Mertens | Win | 7-5, 2-6, 7-6(3) | |
| Madrid | R64 | Maria Sakkari | Win | 6-4, 7-6(6) | |
| Madrid | R128 | Sinja Kraus | Win | 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 |
Grass Is Giving Pliskova Something Again
Pliskova’s ranking still tells one story.
The grass is starting to tell another.
Since arriving on the surface this month, she has beaten McCartney Kessler, Victoria Mboko, Sara Bejlek and now McNally. She also pushed Donna Vekic to three sets at Queen’s Club. That is not a bad grass stretch for a player ranked No. 87 and trying to rebuild from a difficult period.
The next test in Nottingham comes against Talia Gibson.
Pliskova will know there is still too much mess in the game. Too many loose patches. Too many service games where the old weapon does not quite behave like the old weapon. But the bigger picture is encouraging.
On grass, she does not need everything to be perfect.
She needs enough clean first strikes, enough strong return games, and enough calm when the scoreline gets awkward.
Against McNally, the 24-year-old American from Cincinnati, she had all three.