Karolina Muchova books French Open semi-final spot with straight sets win

Karolina Muchova defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova to reach her second grand slam semi-final at the French Open.

The Czech, who also made the last four at the Australian Open in 2021, matched her best slam result with a 7-5 6-2 victory on Philippe Chatrier.

Muchova, 26, suffered an abdominal injury during her Australian run that kept her out for seven months and she was ranked outside the top 200 as recently as September.

With her run here, Muchova is set to return to the top 20, and she said: “I don’t know what to say. It’s been an incredible two weeks and I’m just glad i’m still in the competition.”

The Czech was never behind in the match but was twice pegged back in the opening set, with Pavlyuchenkova breaking when she served for it at 5-4.

However, Muchova broke again, took her second chance and did not look back.