Karolina Muchova saved a match-point to stun Aryna Sabalenka and reach her first grand slam final at the French Open on Thursday.
The unseeded Czech fought back from 5-2 down in the deciding set to claim a 7-6 (5) 6-7 (5) 7-5 victory in a tremendous contest lasting three hours and 13 minutes.
Belarusian Sabalenka was bidding to win back-to-back slam titles after lifting the Australian Open trophy, and appeared to have turned things in her favour.
But she tightened up in sight of the line and Muchova made her pay.
At 43 in the world, the 26-year-old is the fourth lowest-ranked woman to reach the final here.
Also, it is the fifth year in a row that the final will feature an unseeded player.
A delighted Muchova said: “I don’t really know what happened. The atmosphere, it’s unbelievable. I just tried to keep fighting and it worked. I’m so happy.”
The Czech was playing in her second slam semi-final having also reached the last four at the Australian Open in 2021.
But injuries severely restricted her last year, with her ranking dropping outside the top 200.
Muchova has been climbing rapidly this year, though, and can break into the top 10 by lifting the trophy.
Sabalenka, who has found attention more on her off-court views than her tennis this fortnight, made the faster start.
But Muchova grew steadily into the match and made the first big move, breaking for 5-4.
Back came Sabalenka immediately, though, a forehand winner saving a set-point and then more crunching groundstrokes earning her the break.
It was a compelling contest between the raw power and aggression of Sabalenka and the more subtle skills of Muchova.
The Czech gave a masterful display of using angles and changes of direction as well as being very willing to come to the net.
She is not averse to a winner, too, and produced one from the top drawer on her second set-point at 6-5 in the tie-break, drilling a backhand down the line.
Muchova then exploited her opponent’s disappointment to break at the start of the second, and the old Sabalenka might have fallen away quickly in a barrage of errors.
But the Belarusian has beaten her biggest rivals this season with an unshakeable commitment to attacking tennis and she regrouped well.
From 0-2 she moved a break ahead at 4-3 only for Muchova to bounce back.
But Sabalenka confidently served twice to stay in the match, setting up another tie-break.
Nerves were evident from both and Sabalenka double-faulted on her first set-point, but she powered away an overhead on the second.
The second seed probed for an immediate break at the start of the decider and, although Muchova did superbly to withstand that, a break for 4-2 gave Sabalenka some daylight.
The match appeared over when she forced a first match point at 5-2 but Muchova saved it confidently, and Sabalenka then became edgy, throwing in her worst service game of the match.
At 5-5, Sabalenka, who overcame serving yips last year, sent down back-to-back double-faults and Muchova seized her opportunity.
The Czech will in the final now face top seed Iga Swiatek who beat Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia in the other semi-final.(dpa/NAN)
