NEW YORK – Karolina Pliskova shattered Serena Williams’s bid for a record-breaking 23rd Grand Slam title Thursday, her 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) win setting-up a US Open final against new world number one Angelique Kerber.

The win for Czech 10th seed Pliskova meant the 34-year-old American was deposed as the world’s top player, losing her chance to stay at the peak for a record 187 weeks.

In Saturday’s championship match, Pliskova will tackle second seed Kerber who marked her coronation as the new world number one with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over two-time runner-up Caroline Wozniacki.

It will be Pliskova’s first appearance in a Grand Slam final while Australian Open champion Kerber will be in her third of the year having finished runner-up to Williams at Wimbledon.

Williams, who also lost in the semi-finals last year which ended her bid to claim a rare calendar Slam, said she had been suffering from a knee injury in the run-up to the semi-final.

“When you’re hampered you’re thinking of other things,” said the American, a six-time US Open champion.

“Like I was making errors that I never make, and definitely I didn’t make in this tournament in particular.

“So many simple, simple shots that I easily could have made. I just blame that on just mentally thinking about my leg and just not thinking about the shot.”

Pliskova, the first Czech woman in the US Open final since Helena Sukova in 1993, said she had not noticed that her opponent was carrying an injury.

The 24-year-old preferred to focus on finally making a Slam championship match after never making it past the third round of a major in 17 prior attempts.

“I knew I had the chance to beat anyone if I played my game. I am excited to be in the final and to beat Serena as she is such a great champion,” said the 6pht 1in (1.86m) Czech who had also beaten Venus Williams in the fourth round.

“Even when she was down a set and break she was still fighting. I had to fight hard to win.” Despite the injury, Williams admitted Pliskova earned her victory.

“Karolina played great today. I think if she had played any less then maybe I would have had a chance,” said Williams.

Kerber, the 28-year-old left-hander, is the first German woman to reach the final since Steffi Graf in 1996. Graf is also the only other German woman to achieve the top ranking.

“It’s incredible to be in the final and to be the world number one, it’s a great day,” said Kerber, who has made the final without dropping a set.

“To be the number one in the world, that was always a dream for me. I was trying not to think about it too much the last few weeks.” The German leads Pliskova 4-3 in their head to heads, but the Czech won their most recent meeting in the Cincinnati final last month.

Wozniacki, down at 74 in the world after missing almost three months of the season with an ankle injury, had refused on the eve of her fifth semi-final in New York to dampen speculation that she was on the brink of announcing her retirement.

But she certainly appeared to have her mind elsewhere throughout the match.

“I’m a little disappointed not to win today, but at the end of the day it’s been a good tournament, something I can be proud of,” said the Danish player.

“I came into this tournament ranked 74 in the world and probably people ruled me out, but it’s nice to prove people wrong once again.” At least she has the consolation of knowing her surprise run to a fifth semi-final in the city where she keeps a second home will translate to a place back in the world top 30.

A last-minute meeting between Football Association of Singapore (FAS) officials and Fandi Ahmad appears to have thrown a spanner in the Lions legend’s proposed move to Malaysian Super League (MSL) side Pahang.

The Straits Times understands that the FAS has offered the 54-year-old a new multi-year deal that includes a pay rise.

It will also back his plans to lead national youth teams at several major Games leading up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

It is believed that struggling Pahang had offered a lucrative deal to Fandi, who played for them from 1991 to 1992 – winning the Malaysia league and Cup double in the second year. Pahang are bottom of the 12-team MSL with just three wins in 19 games.

Asked by The Straits Times for an update to negotiations, the FAS re-sent a statement it had prepared on Tuesday, which said details are confidential and that an announcement would be made when there is “something conclusive”.

Fandi, whose current deal is set to expire in December, could not be reached for comment following yesterday’s crunch meeting.

Read also: FAS and Fandi to part ways

It is understood that he has also asked to work with the Singapore Armed Forces Sports Association (Safsa) football team, whom many aspiring footballers join as they enter national service.

In addition, yesterday’s negotiations also threw up the possibility of the former national striker having his own coaching team supporting him, including former national fitness coach Aleksandar Bozenko.

The Serb Bozenko left the FAS set-up last December after 11 years and is currently with Thai Premier League club Chonburi FC. It is believed his contract ends next month.

Should Fandi sign on, the FAS would also have to clarify where he fits in the national teams department.

It remains to be seen if Fandi, who holds an Asian Football Confederation Pro Diploma, will continue helping national caretaker coach V. Sundramoorthy with the senior team.

The national team have the Nov 19-Dec 17 ASEAN Football Federation Suzuki Cup coming up, where Sundram has set a target of reaching the semi-finals. The Lions are four-time champions but last won the trophy in 2012.

And if Fandi is handed the reins of a national youth team, it remains to be seen where he fits in FAS technical director Michel Sablon’s youth development plan.

The Belgian, who was hired in April last year, appointed Frenchman Richard Tardy as head coach of the national youth teams in July last year.

Fandi is currently in his second spell with the FAS. He coached the Young Lions, then essentially the national Under-23 team, from 2003 to 2006.

The two-time S-League-winning coach led the Young Lions to two third-placed finishes in the league, their best-ever showings.

He rejoined the FAS late in 2013, succeeding Sundram as coach of the LionsXII. Last year, he led the team to victory in the Malaysian FA Cup.

He was roped in to assist former national coach Bernd Stange after the LionsXII were disbanded at the end of the 2015 campaign.

siangyee@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on September 09, 2016.
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Filipino fighters, particularly fighters from Baguio City’s famed Team Lakay, are not exactly known for their world-class grappling skills inside the ONE Championship cage. However, a noticeable trend in recent victories suggests things are changing in the Philippines’ premiere MMA stable.

Since Kevin Belingon’s loss to reigning ONE Bantamweight World Champion Bibiano Fernandes in China this past January, Team Lakay has railed off 13 straight victories, including four wins by submission. That was virtually unthinkable just a year ago.

In recent months, Team Lakay has embarked on an incredible winning streak, showcasing a stunningly-improved ground game to thwart several top opponents. Examples include Edward Kelly’s submission of Australian champion Jordan Lucas, Geje Eustaquio’s battle against Gianni Subba, and Eduard Folayang’s triumph over top contender Adrian Pang.

In fact, Team Lakay is about to challenge for two ONE World Championships. Joshua Pacio is taking on ONE Strawweight World Champion Yoshitaka Naito at ONE: STATE OF WARRIORS in Yangon on 7 October, while team stalwart Eduard Folayang will challenge ONE Lightweight World Champion Shinya Aoki for his belt in Singapore’s ONE: DEFENDING HONOR on 11 November in Singapore.

This incredible run has the entire industry wondering what Team Lakay’s secret is for the turnaround, yet the team’s founder and head coach, Mark Sangiao, says the answer is simple.

“First of all, I’m obviously very happy at what we’ve achieved recently. Secondly, there’s no secret. It’s just a combination of countless hours of hard work and the lessons we learned in previous losses to high-level grapplers,” said Sangiao. “Through experience, we learned so many lessons, and discovered that we were really lacking in a lot of areas in the grappling department.

“There’s nothing special, no top-secret training methods to credit. We just got to work and focused on our ground game. That’s it. Everyone knows we come from a kickboxing and wushu base where there’s not a lot of grappling involved. So naturally, we added a lot of different elements of ground fighting to our daily routine.”

In previous conversations with the fighters, Lakay’s members mentioned self-discovery and learning as one of the aspects of their improvement.

Fighters like former ONE Featherweight World Champion Honorio “The Rock” Banario say they all watch a lot of tape, whether on Youtube or by other means, and then go back and share what they’ve learned with each other.

Housed in the mountains of Baguio, Team Lakay’s methods and facilities might not seem like much compared to other gyms with world-class training facilities and resources, but it gets the job done, says Sangiao.

“For me as a coach, I think the basics are really important – even more important than the advanced stuff. And there’s a difference between pure grappling and MMA grappling. We train MMA grappling, and we have added a lot of different drills to our daily regimen.”

As to what those drills are, Sangiao would not divulge, but he did however mention that the team is becoming obsessed at getting better on the ground, which is a great thing to add to their already world-class striking techniques.

“In the past, we were just simply focused on standing and wrestling. If there was any grappling involved, it really wasn’t enough,” said Sangiao. “So that’s what I think is the biggest change in our training – the technical grappling element. Now we spend days just rolling and rolling, banking on repetition to embed grappling into our style.”

However, they wouldn’t be Team Lakay without their trademark technical striking techniques. Sangiao says the key to the next level lies in the team’s ability to put everything together. Balance, he says, will take Team Lakay from being talented fringe contenders to dominant world champions.

“We balance our training into three parts: wrestling, striking, and grappling. This helps us stay sharp on all aspects of MMA. Because this isn’t just a stand-up battle, it isn’t just a wrestling battle, and it isn’t just a jiujitsu battle,” stressed Sangiao.

“MMA is a combination of everything, and that’s what we have worked hard on improving.”