Karolina Muchova has done it again after beating the number six seed Karolina Pliskova on Saturday, she has knocked out world number one Ash Barty in her own background with a three set comeback 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. Muchova hit 17 winners while Barty only won a mere 54% of her points on her first serve.
A fast start for the Aussie
After holding serve in the opening service game the world number one went on the attack and managed to get two early break points as the Czech seemed to get off to a slow start.
Barty would get the first break of the match sealing it with a sizzling forehand down the line winner to take an early 2-0 lead. After holding to consolidate the break she kept the momentum going and got another break when the number 25 seed served a double fault for a 4-0 lead.
The Aussie would serve out the first set to take it 6-1 in only 24 minutes and it looked like she was in no mood to mess around.
Cue the comeback
Once again it seemed like world number one was unstoppable and earned early breakpoints off some poor errors from the Czech and got the break to lead 2-0.
At 2-1 the world number 27 called for the trainer and they took her with the tournament doctor and went off court which paused the match for around 8-9 minutes.
The medical timeout seemed to do wonders for Muchova who would get her first breakpoints of the match and break the Aussie to go back on serve at 2-2.
Barty was made to work in the next game saving two more breakpoints from the Czech who seemed to be playing better while the break seemed to have caused the world number one to lose her momentum.
The very next game at 3-3 it was the Aussie turn to earn breakpoints but the number 25 seed did a good job saving them winning some amazing rallies with her powerful groundstrokes which we didn’t see in the first set.
Once again the following service game the Czech came out firing and earned four breakpoints before eventually breaking the world number one to take 5-3 lead and serve out the second set to send it to a decider.
Muchova finishes strong
Fresh off winning the second set, the momentum was firmly with the Czech she earned three breakpoints in the first game of the third set thanks in large part to a great winner.
She would break Barty to take the early 1-0 lead and the following game saved two breakpoints from the Aussie before holding serve. At 4-2 the world number 27 had three chances to earn a double break and it was third time lucky for her as the world number one would send a ball into the net.
Muchova would serve out the match to take it in three sets and book her spot in her first ever grand slam semi final. After-the match in a on court interview she spoke about the match and clarified what the issue was during the medical time out.
“Ya I started to feel a bit lost by the end of the first set, Ash started very good she played almost like no mistakes it was tough and I was a bit lost on the court, my head was spinning so I took a break and it helped me, I tried to get back and play faster rally so we don’t play that long and it worked well”.
