NEW YORK — Karolina Muchova is back in the US Open semifinals for the second year in a row, recovering from wrist surgery by beating No. 22 Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-1, 6-4 on Wednesday.
Muchova lost in the 2023 semifinals to eventual champion Coco Gauff in Flushing Meadows, but then missed nearly 10 months due to a wrist injury she sustained during the tournament.
The Czech returned to action in June, just before Wimbledon, and just over two months later she is in her fourth Grand Slam semi-final.
Muchova will face either top-seeded Iga Swiatek or sixth-seeded Jessica Pegula in the semi-finals on Thursday.
Muchova dominated the first set, racing to a 5-0 lead and wrapping it up in 35 minutes. Then it was a test in the second set, with both players struggling physically on a sunny afternoon.
Muchova left the court at one point for what she described as a necessary toilet visit, while Haddad Maia pointed to her chest midway through the set and tried to take a deep breath before burying her head in a towel as her trainers attended to her.
Muchova had to get used to dealing with pain.
She had just reached her second major semi-final of 2023, after lost to Swiatek in the French Open finalwhen she had to stop playing after the US Open. When she finally returned to the tour this year, she only had time for 11 matches before returning to Flushing Meadows.
That was enough time for Muchova to rediscover her game. She did not lose a set in her five matches and closed them with an ace in the middle.
Many fans had not yet taken their seats in Arthur Ashe Stadium when Muchova broke Haddad Maia in a 14-point game to take a 2-0 lead. The Brazilian had faced the same deficit in her third-round match against Anna Kalinskaya, but won the next game to turn things around, helped by a video review that gave her a point.
The U.S. Tennis Association acknowledged the next day that Haddad Maia’s shot was illegal, but the chair umpire was not shown any relevant replay to show that.
Muchova did not allow a turnaround this time and thus denied Haddad Maia the second major semi-final of her career.
___
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis