Karolina Muchova knows that she will be the underdog with the crowd against her in her upcoming match at the US Open but she is taking it all in her stride.
Muchova, who is seeded 10th in this year’s draw, sealed her place in the semi-finals of the tournament for the first time with a resounding 6-0, 6-3, win over Romania’s Sorana Cirstea. It is the second time this year that the Czech has gone deep at Grand Slam after reaching the final of the French Open. To put that into perspective, the only other female player from her country to reach the last four of both of those tournaments within the same year was Helena Sukova in 1986.
Awaiting Muchova in the last four at Flushing Meadows will be Coco Gauff who she lost to in the final of the Cincinatti Open last month. In five matches played, she has only dropped one set which was against Wang Xinyu in the fourth round.
“She’s very athletic. She never gives up. Runs for every ball. Doesn’t do many mistakes,” Muchova said of Gauff.
“So she has kind of all the strokes. So very, very good player from all the aspects.”
The 27-year-old says she is ready to ‘put up a fight’ against Gauff who she describes as an ‘amazing player.’ So far this year the world No.10 has won 26 out of 34 matches played on the Tour. In August she made her top 10 debut after being ranked outside the top 100 a year earlier.
Reflecting on her latest run in New York, Muchova says having a mentality of not putting too much pressure on herself has helped her.
“I’m just trying to keep things actually pretty easy and don’t put much expectations on me,” she said.
“I’m pretty, I would say, a tough cookie in life as well. That helps with tennis. Some days are better; some days not.
“But I always try to keep the clear mind and to be relaxed and enjoy the sport, just the basics.”
Muchova is one of two Czech women to reach the semi-finals of the US Open alongside Marketa Vondrousova. Should either of them go on to win the title it would be the first time in history a player from that country has won the tournament.
