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September 9, 2021,
It is at night, but don’t be alarmed.
If you see a beautiful statuesque woman with long flowing hair, in a daze, walking down Madison Ave in New York, relax.
She’s only sleep walking.
Karolina Pliskova is incredibly talented.
Apparently she plays tennis matches in her sleep as well.
With her eyes open.
And a blank stare.
Throughout the match.
Winning or losing. It doesn’t matter. The blank stare is always there.
According to the Mayo Clinic, “Sleepwalking — also known as somnambulism — involves getting up and walking around while in a state of sleep. Isolated incidents of sleepwalking often don’t signal any serious problems or require treatment.”
Really? No treatment?
What if you are in the quarterfinals of the largest and most powerful tennis tournament in the world? The players get treatment for leg and thigh injuries don’t they? Their back too.
Karolina sure could have used some treatment. Maybe it would wake her up.
Is it okay for tennis players to drink Red Bull between change overs?
Even one of the television announcers, who was at ground level, expressed concern that Karolina seemed to have no emotion involved in the match.
Don’t worry Ms. Announcer. Karolina is sleep walking and the Mayo Clinic says it doesn’t signal any serious problems nor does it require treatment.
Unless Maria Sakkari is on the other side of the net and wants what you seemingly should want, which is a spot in the United States Open semi-finals.
Now you have a serious problem.
You would think with all of the fist pumping, jumping, yelling, screaming, howling, war whooping, grimacing and laser vision stares emanating from Maria that she would have shocked Karolina out of her sleep.
Not a chance.
Was Karolina in deep REM?
As shared by my.clevelandclinic.org, “During the night, you cycle through two types of sleep: non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Your brain and body act differently during these different phases.”
Ah, we get it. So that’s what it is. What a relief. Karolina is in non-REM. She’s moving around but there is non-rapid eye movement. Like a blank stare.
Makes perfect sense.
Fortunately is didn’t last long. Maria mauled her in routine fashion 6-4, 6-4. The match was never in doubt. So much so that we fell asleep after the first set.
Very true story.
When we woke up, the match was over and Karolina was walking inside of the player’s tunnel to the locker room. With an expressionless blank stare.
And you know what?
We couldn’t tell if she won or lost. Seriously folks. We couldn’t. We have seen her win countless times and have seen her lose only a few times and her expression is always the same.
Like she is sleep walking. With a blank stare.
The difference is that in most of her matches she has rapid leg and arm movement.
Not this time.
What a resume she has.
Karolína is a former world No. 1 in singles, reaching the top of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings on 17 July 2017 and holding the position for eight weeks.
On October 31, 2016, she peaked at world No. 11 in the doubles rankings.
Known for her powerful serve, forehand and blank stare, Ms. Plíšková has won 16 singles and five doubles titles on the WTA tour, 10 singles and six doubles titles on the ITF Circuit, and over $20 million in prize money.
She has reached two Grand Slam singles finals at the 2016 US Open and the 2021 Wimbledon Championships.
That night, her fierce opponent, who is always very wide awake has an exceptional resume as well.
Maria Sakkari reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 18. Her best WTA doubles ranking is 169, achieved on 9 September 2019.
Ms. Sakkari has won one singles title on the WTA Tour at the 2019 Morocco Open, where she defeated Johanna Konta in the final. She was also semifinalist of 2017 Wuhan Open, where she defeated Caroline Wozniacki in route, her first top-10 win.
In 2019, she reached another Premier 5 semifinal at the Italian Open where she defeated, among other players, Petra Kvitová.
In 2020, Sakkari reached the fourth round at both the Australian Open and US Open, and in 2021 she has reached the semifinals at the French Open.
Sakkari is known for her aggressive, all-court style of play, centered on her strong serve and powerful groundstrokes. Sakkari served the sixth most aces of any WTA player in 2020, with 144 aces served in 31 matches.
Very impressive.
So, on another US Open night, like no other, for either player, Ms. Sakkari was wide awake and very aware of what was at stake.
As reported by sports.yahoo.com, “Sakkari, the No. 17 seed in the tournament, defeated Pliskova 6-4, 6-4 to advance to her second career Grand Slam semifinal. She got there through sheer dominance in her service games.”
Throughout ten service games, Maria dropped a total of only eight points, with just three double faults.
Even when she tried to help Karolina, the seasoned star snoozed through it.
She never faced a break point. She won 22 straight points on serve midway through the match.
That is how you define dominant.
She will need to perform that way again.
As shared by wtatennis.com, the brilliant star will face Britain’s Emma Raducanu on Thursday for a spot in her first major final.
Emma Raducanu’s complete devastation of Belinda Bencic in the previous round was a masterpiece. Emma got off to a slow start, found her rhythm and even signaled to her team that, okay, now I’m ready.
She never looked back.
There was nothing Belinda could do to stop her and Emma reeled off a 6-3, 6-4 victory, making a statement that we’re sure Maria read loud and clear.
Wide awake. No Red Bull needed.
As far as sleep walking goes, don’t be alarmed. We know that people have done terrible things and blamed it on walking in their sleep (Forensic Files) and in the 2013 thriller “Side Effects”, the wife claimed to have killed her husband in her sleep and blamed her medications.
Turned out she was fibbing.
She was wide awake when she did it.
In the next round, make no mistake about it, Maria will face a player who is hungry and wide awake. Promises to be a great showdown. The stakes are incredibly high.
Filled with fist pumping and emotions.
No blank stares anywhere.
~ ~ ~
OPENING PHOTO Femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com, fciwomenswrestling.com, fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com Editorial credit: Jimmie48 Photography / Shutterstock.com photo credit, Editorial use
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sleepwalking/symptoms-causes/syc-20353506
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/12148-sleep-basics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karol%C3%ADna_Pl%C3%AD%C5%A1kov%C3%A1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Sakkari
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
DISCLAINER: This article is intended as satire. Ms. Pliskova is one of the world’s greatest players and according to our research, has no sleeping disorder.
