French Open 2023: Women’s singles final guide – Iga Swiatek v Karolina Muchova
June 9, 2023
World No 1 Iga Swiatek will set out to win her fourth Grand Slam title when she takes on Karolina Muchova in the French Open women’s singles final on Saturday.
Top seed and huge favourite Iga Swiatek will take on first-time Grand Slam finalist Karolina Muchova.
Muchova had stunned Aryna Sabalenka to end the world No 2’s 2023 Grand Slam winning streak after a dozen triumphs.
It took, Muchova over three hours to put Sabalenka away across a three-set epic that very nearly went to three tiebreakers.
Muchova sports a remarkable record against highly-ranked players sporting a 5-0 winning record over players ranked in the top three of the WTA Rankings.
Regardless of what goes down in the final, Muchova is projected to return to the Top 20 of the WTA rankings on Monday and if she wins the French Open title she will surge to a new career-high and a place among the top ten players in the world.
Until her semi-final meeting with Sabalenka, Muchova had two seeds during the Roland Garros main draw, eliminating Eighth seed Maria Sakkari in the opening round and breezing beyond Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu in the Round of 32.
In her second match of the tournament, Muchova recovered from a second-set bagel from Nadia Podoroska of Argentina to match her best previous efforts in Paris.
She would face Russian opponents in both the Round of 16 and last eight ousting Elina Avanesyan and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets.
Muchova’s previous best Grand Slam performance came at the 2021 Australian Open where she reached the last four, following which she suffered protracted injury woes that have blighted her career.
She follows in the footsteps of Martina Navratilova, Lucie Safarova, Marketa Vondrousova and Barbora Krejcikova as Czech women who have contested the French Open final in the open era.
Swiatek hadn’t dropped a set en route to the semi-finals and though she blew through the first set, suffered from an uncharacteristically jittery game on serve in the second set against Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia in her last four match.
Haddad Maia forced Swiatek to contest the longest match of her French Open campaign so far with the left-hander using her heavy-hitting to turn the tide in longer rallies and pushed the world No 1 into a tiebreaker.
Swiatek had dropped just 15 games in five matches on her way to the semi-final but Haddad Maia was able to put her under pressure and held a set point in the tiebreaker but the Pole showed greater steel in the key moments.
The semi-final win came in straight sets in the end but Swiatek was on court for a little over two hours.
Swiatek improved her perfect record and is in line to possibly win the title without dropping set.
She will play her third French Open final with Swiatek lifting the trophy in 2020 and 2022.
Muchova is unlikely to be able to put Swiatek under the same kind of pressure as the hard-hitting left-hander the world No 1 eventually put away in the semi-finals.
She beat Swiatek in their only previous meeting in Prague back in 2019. That defeat came on clay but also came very early in the career of the women who has been on top of the WTA tree since April 2022.
Swiatek will retain that No 1 status thanks to Muchova’s victory over challenger Sabalenka but the Pole’s shakey display in the second set of the semi-final will give the Czech No 43 hope of pulling off a huge upset.
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French Open 2023: Women’s singles final guide – Iga Swiatek v Karolina Muchova
World No 1 Iga Swiatek will set out to win her fourth Grand Slam title when she takes on Karolina Muchova in the French Open women’s singles final on Saturday.
Top seed and huge favourite Iga Swiatek will take on first-time Grand Slam finalist Karolina Muchova.
Muchova had stunned Aryna Sabalenka to end the world No 2’s 2023 Grand Slam winning streak after a dozen triumphs.
It took, Muchova over three hours to put Sabalenka away across a three-set epic that very nearly went to three tiebreakers.
Muchova sports a remarkable record against highly-ranked players sporting a 5-0 winning record over players ranked in the top three of the WTA Rankings.
Regardless of what goes down in the final, Muchova is projected to return to the Top 20 of the WTA rankings on Monday and if she wins the French Open title she will surge to a new career-high and a place among the top ten players in the world.
Until her semi-final meeting with Sabalenka, Muchova had two seeds during the Roland Garros main draw, eliminating Eighth seed Maria Sakkari in the opening round and breezing beyond Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu in the Round of 32.
In her second match of the tournament, Muchova recovered from a second-set bagel from Nadia Podoroska of Argentina to match her best previous efforts in Paris.
She would face Russian opponents in both the Round of 16 and last eight ousting Elina Avanesyan and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets.
Muchova’s previous best Grand Slam performance came at the 2021 Australian Open where she reached the last four, following which she suffered protracted injury woes that have blighted her career.
She follows in the footsteps of Martina Navratilova, Lucie Safarova, Marketa Vondrousova and Barbora Krejcikova as Czech women who have contested the French Open final in the open era.
Swiatek hadn’t dropped a set en route to the semi-finals and though she blew through the first set, suffered from an uncharacteristically jittery game on serve in the second set against Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia in her last four match.
Haddad Maia forced Swiatek to contest the longest match of her French Open campaign so far with the left-hander using her heavy-hitting to turn the tide in longer rallies and pushed the world No 1 into a tiebreaker.
Swiatek had dropped just 15 games in five matches on her way to the semi-final but Haddad Maia was able to put her under pressure and held a set point in the tiebreaker but the Pole showed greater steel in the key moments.
The semi-final win came in straight sets in the end but Swiatek was on court for a little over two hours.
Swiatek improved her perfect record and is in line to possibly win the title without dropping set.
She will play her third French Open final with Swiatek lifting the trophy in 2020 and 2022.
Muchova is unlikely to be able to put Swiatek under the same kind of pressure as the hard-hitting left-hander the world No 1 eventually put away in the semi-finals.
She beat Swiatek in their only previous meeting in Prague back in 2019. That defeat came on clay but also came very early in the career of the women who has been on top of the WTA tree since April 2022.
Swiatek will retain that No 1 status thanks to Muchova’s victory over challenger Sabalenka but the Pole’s shakey display in the second set of the semi-final will give the Czech No 43 hope of pulling off a huge upset.