Dubai: At birth, just two minutes separated the Pliskova twins, and even now Kristyna and Karolina can hardly bear the thought of being away from each other even for a second.
“That’s our strong point,” said Kristyna, the older of the twins, who both reached finals at the 15th Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge that concluded at the Habtoor Grand Beach Resort and Spa on Saturday.
“We are always together because that’s how it was meant to be after being born identical.”
Karolina added: “Kristyna was not even meant to come to Dubai this week, but she changed her mind at the last moment just because she did not want me to travel alone.”
And making their debuts here has certainly been fruitful for the 21-year-olds, with Kristyna making it to the singles final before losing 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 to Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm, while Karolina and fellow Czech Eva Hrdinova made it to the doubles final against Maria-Elena Camerin and Vera Dushevina, where they lost 7-5, 6-3.
“It was her late decision that has put us in this situation. We never play the doubles separately. I could have been in both the finals here,” Kristyna said.
Despite their close relationship, the twins often get tetchy with each other — especially on court — before quickly settling their differences. “We fight and argue a lot on court, especially when either of us makes a mistake with a wrong shot,” Karolina said.
“If you want to put it in a different way, you can say that we simply communicate a lot more than others and that is the reason why we are so close.”
Her sister added: “We fight all the time, be it on court, during practice sessions or even when we are in our room. But at the end of five minutes we are back to normal.”
The Al Habtoor Tennis Challenge has been beneficial to the Czech Republic pair as their results ensured both secured their main draw singles entry for next year’s Australian Open.
“At first we came to Dubai because we do not have beaches back home. But now we go with the assurance that we can both play in the main draw in Australia. What more can we ask for? Dubai has been good to us on debut,” Kristyna said.
