Identical twins face off in tennis tournament

Karolina and Kristyna Pliskova have played out the first match between identical twins in the history of the WTA tour.

And the historic showdown ended in an upset as Kristyna, ranked No. 112, won 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7) against her No. 3-ranked sister at the grass-court Birmingham Classic on Wednesday.

It was the Czech twins’ first match against each other in the main draw of a WTA event, and the 10th meeting of sisters on the tour.

Kristyna Pliskova embraces sister Karolina after her win. (Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images for LTA)
Kristyna Pliskova embraces sister Karolina after her win. (Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images for LTA)

Kristyna won their first-ever meeting, at the Malta ITF junior tournament as 14 year olds, and has edged ahead 6-5 in their head-to-head record in competitive matches.

The match was decided by a third-set tiebreaker in which both of the 27-year-old sisters made untimely double faults.

Karolina fell behind 6-5 with a double fault, but Kristyna replied with one of her own to make it.

Kristyna and Karolina Pliskova. (Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images for LTA)
Kristyna and Karolina Pliskova. (Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images for LTA)

At 7-7, Karolina once again double faulted to give Kristyna another match point and this time the left-handed player didn't waste it to wrap up the match in just under two hours.

Remarkably, it was Kristyna’s first career victory against a top 5 opponent.

Tennis fans were in a frenzy over the tennis twins.