Clearly, Karolina Muchova is his pet peeve. Aryna Sabalenka, world number 2, was beaten for the 3rd consecutive time (after Roland-Garros and Cincinnati last year) by the Czech this Friday in the quarter-final of the WTA 1000 in Beijing. She gave in in three sets (7-6, 2-6, 6-4) and 2h46 of combat. The Belarusian remained on two consecutive titles, at the Cincinnati tournament at the end of August then at the US Open last month, beating the American Jessica Pegula in the final each time.
This duel between two formidable waitresses offered a high-level spectacle from start to finish despite the difference in ranking. Sabalenka, seeded N.1, saved three break points in her first service game. Muchova rejected two set points for the Belarusian at 5-4 before winning the tie-break of the first set won in 1h13 with panache at the net, the first set lost by the No.2 since her third round at the US Open.
In the second set, Sabalenka broke her opponent at 1-1 then again at 4-2, and did not tremble when equalizing. Muchova lost her footing at the start of the last set, letting her entry serve slip away. She managed to break the break at 2-1 for Sabalenka but she immediately reacted by giving her a blank break. The Czech, who seemed on the verge of breaking, nevertheless managed to come back once again and then took the lead.
She played incredible tennis
Sabalenka, visibly frustrated, then collapsed, losing the last ten points of the match. “The conditions here are so difficult that it could go one way or the other. She made some great comebacks, gained momentum and started playing more aggressively“said Sabalenka, who will compete at the WTA 1000 in Wuhan next week.”It was a very high level match and she played incredible tennis“, greeted the Belarusian.
With the withdrawal of the Polish Iga Swiatek for the WTA 1000 tournaments in Beijing and Wuhan, she lost the opportunity to score valuable points while she made the world No.1 position her declared end-of-season goal . On Friday, Swiatek, who has reigned on the circuit for more than a year but is experiencing a delicate end to the season, also announced that he was parting ways with his coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski.
In Beijing, far from these worries, Muchova, 28, will face the Chinese Qinwen Zheng (7th) or the 17-year-old Russian prodigy Mirra Andreeva (22nd) in the semi-final. The Czech, finalist at Roland-Garros in 2023, has only one title to her name, won in Seoul in 2019.
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