Tennis player Karolína Muchová showed two big turns and will play for the first time in the round of 16 of the US Open grand slam.
The twentieth seeded in the decisive set of the 3rd round lost to the Romanian Sorana Cirstea 3: 5, but she forced a tie-break, in which she deflected three match points and won 6: 3, 2: 6 and 7: 6.
Muchová won the first set thanks to winning four games in a row, even after three Romanian double mistakes in the final game of the opening act. In the second set, however, she fell out of rhythm in long exchanges, made a mistake, and Cirstea’s 77th player in the world leveled.
In the dramatic decisive set, after a series of breaks, Muchová lost 2: 4 and in the state of 4: 5 from the Czech point of view, she served the Romanian to win. But Muchová performed the best tennis under pressure, took the opponent’s service with an active game, turned the score to 6: 5 and was even two balls away from the victory during Cirstea’s service.
However, the opponent still fought and the fate of the match had to be decided by a tie-break. In his introduction, the Czech tennis player went wrong four times, so she lost 0: 4 and faced three match points at 3: 6.
But she showed her strength again. Cirstea made a mistake during the first match, but then David Kotyza’s charge acted – during the second match she hit the side line from the backhand and averted the third with a volley after approaching the net. She did not use her first opportunity to end the match, but during the second she tricked the serve, which the opponent was just flowing.
“I didn’t play the best tennis, I fought with myself and I’m not blown away by it, but I’m happy how I fought with it. It was overwhelming, but I won it. I managed to turn important balloons,” she said.
Twenty-four-year-old Muchová is thus in the eighth final for the first time after two participations in the US Open in the third round. She will compete for the quarterfinals with either Viktoria Azarenková from Belarus or Igka Šwiateková from Poland, with whom she played at the Prague team exhibition in July and won the supertie-break.
“Both are terribly good players. It’s only the fourth round after all, so you can’t expect it to be easy,” said Muchová, whose grand slam high is last year’s quarterfinal on the grass at Wimbledon.
Muchová is the second Czech in the fourth round of this year’s tournament in New York, which is played without fans due to coronavirus. Petra Kvitová succeeded in front of her.
Already in the quarterfinals of the doubles, Květa Peschkeová is the last of the Czech debutists. Together with the Dutch Demi Schuursová, the fourths are seeded and in the 2nd round the Georgian-Russian couple defeated Oksana Kalashnikov, Alla Kudrjavcevova 6: 2, 7: 5.
The third seeded Daniil Medvedev from Russia and the tournament six Italian Matteo Berrettini advanced to the round of 16 without any problems. In an attractive duel of former US Open winners, American Serena Williams defeated compatriot Sloane Stephens 2: 6, 6: 2, 6: 2.
The 39-year-old Williams is aiming for her 24th grand slam title in New York to match Margaret Court’s record holder. In Monday’s round of 16, the finalist of the previous two years of the US Open will face the Greek Maria Sakkari.
US Open New York tennis slam tournament (hard surface, $ 53.4 million grant):
Men:
Singles – Round 3:
Medvedev (3-RUS) – Wolf (USA) 6: 3, 6: 3, 6: 2, Rublyov (10-RUS) – Caruso (It.) 6: 0, 6: 4, 6: 0.
Singles – Round 3:
Muchová (20-CR) – Cirstea (ROU) 6: 3, 2: 6, 7: 6 (9: 7), Mertens (16-Belg.) – McNally (USA) 7: 5, 6: 1, Sakkar ( 15-Greece) – Anisimova (22-USA) 6: 3, 6: 1.
Doubles – Round 2:
Peschke, Schuursová (4-ČR / Niz.) – Kalašnikovová, Kudrjavcevová (Gruz./Rus.) 6: 2, 7: 5.
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