Karoline Pliskova is likely to miss at least the first two months of the 2025 season as she continues her recovery from surgery.
The two-time Grand Slam finalist hasn’t played a match on the Tour since retiring from her first round clash against Jasmine Paolini at the US Open due to injury. Pliskova then underwent surgery on the tendons in her left ankle. Since then, the Czech has been in rehabilitation and earlier this month posted on Instagram that she was ‘slowly’ getting back into the gym.
Providing an update on her current fitness, Pliskova has confirmed she will miss the first part of 2025 and aims to make a return during the North American hardcourt swing, which will take place in March. It will be only the second time she has skipped the Australian Open since making her main draw debut in 2013. She also missed the Grand Slam in 2022 due to a wrist injury.
“I can’t run yet and we’re quite far from tennis,” iDNES.CZ quoted Pliskova as saying.
“I don’t want to rush anything. I already made a mistake with my hand – I played in pain for a month and a half, and I still didn’t win anything. It doesn’t make sense.
“So I’ll take the protected ranking and come back in March for Indian Wells and Miami, maybe. Of course, if another snag doesn’t appear.”
The 32-year-old adds that she plans to continue playing on the Tour despite her injury setback. This season Pliskova has produced a win-loss record of 20-16, according to her WTA profile. Her best result of 2024 was in Romania where she won the Transylvania Open. She was also a finalist at the Nottingham Open and reached the semi-finals in Doha, which is a WTA 1000 event.
“I would like to come back so that people can see me again,” she said. “I don’t want to end up sidelined by injury or just surviving on the court. I just want to get back to normal and play some more. The advantage is that other parts of my body like my wrists, which I also struggled with, are rested.”
Plisova has spent eight weeks as world No.1 and won 17 WTA titles so far in her career.
