Bill Simons and Vinay Venkatesh
Paris
Karolina Muchova was toast. Exhausted and down match point, she was on the brink of defeat.
Sure, the Czech had had a wonderful French Open. Never mind that she’d long battled many injuries and was only ranked No. 43. She came out and gave us sublime tennis. Playing with ease and grace, she was fleet – almost flawless – as she moved like a feather about sun-bathed Court Centrale. The veteran all-court player seemed to give new meaning to the French maxim that’s all around Roland Garros: “Go for the lines with style.”
She muted Sabalenka’s power and kept her from gaining any rhythm. Slice backhands, timely net charges, textbook volleys – Muchova has a unique game. Then again, Karolina said, “I have it like that in everything in life, I don’t really want to be like anyone else. It’s the type of game I enjoy and believe in.”
Muchova, who suffered a slew of injuries in past years, saw her ranking drop to No. 235, and last year endured a financial crisis, today started fast and surged ahead. She captured the first-set tiebreak 7-5 and went up 2-0 in the second set. A swift middleweight with superb jabs, Muchova was taking it to the WTA’s heavyweight champion.
But, not surprisingly Sabalenka, fought back. The Australian Open champion was on a 12-match Grand Slam winning streak. Throughout the tourney, the Belarusian had been entwined in a political vortex. Her links to a tyrant were noted. But how significant were they? The 25-year old was shaken. She felt she wasn’t safe in her early press conferences.
Then, incredibly, she came out against Belarusia’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko. What guts. And today, she was brave on court. Beginning in the third game of the second set, broad-shouldered Aryna came on, firing on all cylinders. Her forehands were thunderous (so what else is new). She laced backhands, played impressive defense and served big. The match was enthralling.
Radio Roland Garros’s Sophie Amiach couldn’t believe what she was seeing: “It’s been absolutely grand from the first point to now. It’s definitely one of the best matches of the tournament…The intensity has been great. It’s ridiculous…This is crazy. How can they play so well for so long?”
Aryna is a big athlete who was scoring a big comeback. Muchova wavered just slightly as Sabalenka blasted an overhead to grab the second set tiebreak 7-5.
All of heavyweight Sabaleka’s fierce punches seemed to have taken their toll on her middleweight foe. As she often does, Aryna was bullying with her first-strike tennis. Soon Muchova was reeling. She stretched her calves and iced herself down on changeovers as Aryna took control of the third set. Fans now assumed they’d be seeing the marquee final everyone expected: No. 1 Swiatek vs. No. 2 Sabalenka, with the winner claiming the top ranking spot.
Czech Muchova seemed to have checked out. Errors crept into her game. She was cramping and feeling exhausted. You could sense her pain. She was down 5-2 and serving to stay in the match – and Aryna gained a match point.
Then again, Czech Barbora Krejcikova had a match point in the 2021 semifinal against Maria Sakkari and came back to win the title. Plus, Karolina loves to bring down the mighty. Just ask Ash Barty, Naomi Osaka or Maria Sakkari. Muchova is 5-0 against top-three players.
And for all of Sabalenka’s power, her recent successes, and her advances in her mental game, one still has the feeling that she is oh-so-fragile, and a meltdown is just a crisis away. Aryna couldn’t convert her match point. Muchova held serve, then hit a brilliant forehand return winner, and Sabalenka made three backhand errors in a row to lose her serve.
A mind-boggling reversal that was both a brave comeback and a stunning collapse was before us. One felt for Sabalenka, who fussed with rackets and suddenly seemed adrift. She wanted it so much. But the crowd empowered Muchova, who later said “the clapping and the trumpets” inspired her. The Czech found a second wind. Her magic returned. She won 20 of the next 24 points, and five games in a row. Just 19 minutes after she was down match point, she lifted her arms to the blue Parisian heavens and soon was sobbing. With her 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 7-5 win she became the fifth Czech woman to reach the French Open final.
Observers wondered whether this match or Gael Monfils’s rousing first-round five-set victory was the best match of the tourney. Was this the best WTA battle of the year? When have we seen a better women’s Slam semi? Mats Wilander’s post-match question captured it all: “This was such an incredible match, Karolina. What did you do, except to play amazing?”
REDEMPTION AT ROLAND GARROS: At fancy clubs and gritty public courts, it’s a fun, vastly popular event. At the Olympics it’s a pretty big deal, and at majors, mixed doubles can fill big voids, when there’s little play toward the end of Slams. What’s not to like about the mixed doubles team of Roger Federer and Martina Hingis? And speaking of Martinas, at 49, Martina Navratilova teamed up with Bob Bryan to win the 2006 US Open mixed doubles.
In Paris, we knew that in today’s mixed doubles final there would be a dramatic story one way or the other. Bianca Andreescu, who was the 2019 US Open singles champion, has been struggling for years. Before the tournament, her aging Romanian grandmother told her to win one more major for her. Tears would have flowed if the Canadian, together with New Zealand’s Michael Venus, had prevailed today.
But an even more stunning storyline emerged. Japan’s Miyu Kato had been booted out of the women’s doubles tournament when she was the victim of a bonehead call. She’d lofted a ball to a ball person who wasn’t looking. The ball had hit the girl, who broke out in tears. Kato’s disqualification, along with her Indonesian partner Aldila Sutjiadi, was seen as a harsh, stiff overreaction and was widely condemned.
But today, the 28-year-old Kato, who’s ranked No. 31 in doubles, joined with Tim Puetz, a product of German public courts who’s No. 24 in doubles, and came from behind to win the French Open mixed doubles title 4-6, 6-4, 10-6.
Miyu told the adoring crowd that it had been a hard and challenging time. She thanked all the players and coaches who supported her and assured everyone she would do her best to someday win the women’s doubles. Her partner Puetz said, “It’s unbelievable what has happened in the last few days…I hope this is redemption.”
WHY DO THESE FOUR WORDS COME TO MIND WHEN YOU THINK OF THE UPCOMING POPCORN MATCH BETWEEN NOVAK DJOKOVIC AND CARLOS ALCARAZ? “Worthy of a final.” Friday’s semifinal between No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz and No. 3 Novak Djokovic is what everyone has been waiting for. It’s a delicious intergenerational rivalry between the prevailing GOAT, who’s 36 years old, and Spain’s bound-for-glory US Open champion, Carlos Alcaraz, 20, who’s hoping to win the second straight Slam he’s played.
Alcaraz won their only match, a long-ago 2022 battle on clay in Madrid. Here, both have dropped only one set so far. Powerful young Carlitos is the oddsmaker’s favorite. But Nole backers are quick to point out that the Serb knows full well that he has a unique opportunity in this Rafa-less tourney. He seems locked in and has a look of ferocity. And certainly he would dearly like to win the third straight Grand Slam he’s played in and thereby gain a Serena equaling 23rd Slam, which would also take him past Rafa.
THE POLE ROLLS ON: Iga Swiatek downed Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-2, 7-6(7) and will try to gain her third French Open title Saturday against Karolina Muchova.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: “The French crowds are more passionate than they are rational.” – Chris Bowers
SAY IT ISN’T SO: You can no longer see the Eiffel Tower from the new version of Court Philippe-Chatrier.
