Karolina Muchova canceled half of the intrigue

In the final of the women’s singles of the French Open, which is entering the home stretch in Paris, the first racket of the world, Iga Swiatek from Poland, will play in two sets, beating the Brazilian Beatrice Addad Maia, and the Czech Karolina Muchova, who unexpectedly defeated the winner of the Australian Open of this tournament in three sets. of the year Arina Sobolenko. The Kommersant correspondent watched both matches on Philippe Chatrier’s court Evgeny Fedyakov.

For modern women’s tennis, rich in surprises, the current Roland Garros turned out to be not the most typical major. For the first time in the last ten years, tennis players seeded under the first and second numbers reached the semi-finals in Paris – Pole Iga Swiatek and Belarusian Arina Sabolenko. It seemed that the finale between them could not be avoided. Moreover, it would decide the fate of not only the championship trophy, but also the title of the first racket of the world, which currently belongs to Sventek. However, it turned out differently. In the first of two matches on Thursday, which lasted more than three hours, a sensation was born, thanks to which the polka on Monday will now surely remain at the top of the rankings.

Two weeks ago in Carolina Muchova it was almost impossible to recognize the future finalist of Roland Garros.

Of course, the traditions of the Czech tennis school are well known, and sometimes its representatives shoot at Grand Slam tournaments completely unexpectedly. We can recall, for example, Petra Kvitova’s first triumph at Wimbledon in 2011, which came as a surprise. And two years ago, the French Open was won by Barbora Kreychikova, who at that time was in the fourth ten of the world ranking. But Kreichikova at least came to Paris, having won the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) clay tournament in Strasbourg, and Mukhova won absolutely nothing last spring, dropping out in Madrid in the second round, and in Rome in 1/8 final. And even when at the start of the French Open the Czech figured out the eighth racket of the world Greek Maria Sakkari, no one saw her in the final anyway. Perhaps only after the quarter-finals against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova did most of the journalists in the Roland Garros press center begin to take a closer look at this already very experienced 26-year-old tennis player, who twice played in the Wimbledon quarter-finals, reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open in 2021 and suffered several serious injuries. One of them, by the way, she received 12 months ago in Paris.

Mukhova has good physical data, a great sense of the ball, she can perform almost all technical elements at a high level, including excellent serves, but most importantly, she has a very even temperament, which helps her not to lose her head in the most difficult situations. Arina Sobolenko, an athletic and very reckless athlete, plays more powerful tennis. But the Czech from the very beginning of the meeting opposed the power and emotionality of the Belarusian with her own rationalism and left behind an absolutely equal first set in the tie-break.

The second game also ended with a tie-break, which was already left for Sobolenko. And in the third installment, she took the lead – 5: 2 and received a match point in the eighth game on the pitch of Muchova. But she played it back with a clear three-hit combination, after which something suddenly broke inside the second racket of the world. She gave five games in a row, and the last Czech, despite cramps in the thigh, took to zero. As a result – 7:6 (7:5), 6:7 (5:7), 7:5. On Monday, Mukhova will rise to the top ten from her current 32nd place in the WTA classification for the first time in her career.

Ige Shventek one failure of Arina Sobolenko to save the tennis crown was not enough. She still needed a semi-final victory over Beatriz Addad Maia, who became Brazil’s first Grand Slam semi-finalist in 55 years. The only face-to-face meeting of these two rivals, which took place last year in Toronto, was won by a South American. Nevertheless, in this case, the balance of power looked obvious, if only because in the five previous matches in Paris, the heroic Addad Maya spent 12 hours and 55 minutes on the courts, and Sventek only 5 hours and 32 minutes.

But even here it was not without a struggle. After losing the first game, Addad Maya found the resources to bring the matter to a tie-break in the second set, during which she led 6:5. Schwentek was clearly nervous, but at key moments her ability to invest in decisive blows still affected. Having won – 6:2, 7:6 (9:7), the two-time champion Roland Garros reached the final of this tournament for the third time. Moreover, her first and so far her last meeting with Muchova, which took place in Prague in 2019, ended not in favor of the polka.