WHAT HAPPENED: Karolina Muchova made her first US Open semifinal on Tuesday night, beating Sorana Cirstea, 6-0, 6-3, in a rematch of their third-round meeting at the 2020 US Open (which Muchova had also won).
At age 33, Cirstea was the oldest women’s singles quarterfinalist at this year’s US Open. The Romanian hadn’t been in a Grand Slam quarterfinal in 14 years and her nerves showed early under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium. Serving the opening game of the first set, the Romanian only got two of her six first-serves in and was quickly broken in her first two service games. Muchova, leading 3-0, held in a marathon 10-deuce game and went up 4-0 when Cirstea failed to convert nine break points. Muchova sealed the bagel set in 42 minutes.
“Forget about the score! You’re hitting well! Now we fight,” Cirstea’s coach, 2022 Australian Open men's singles champion Thomas Johansson, yelled to Cirstea between sets.
In the second set, Muchova, 27, took a 4-3 lead when she broke Cirstea for the second time in the set. Leading 5-3 on Cirstea’s serve, Muchova then turned a love-40 deficit into a match point after an 18-ball rally and wrapped up play after one hour and 38 minutes.
An all-Czech final is still a possibility. Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova is in the opposite half of the draw and faces Madison Keys in a Wednesday quarterfinal.
"It's big competition in Czech Republic," Muchova said in her on-court interview after the win. "It's tough. We support each other."
WHAT IT MEANS: Muchova will now face No. 6 seed Coco Gauff in the semifinals. In their only previous meeting, Gauff beat Muchova in straight sets in last month's Cincinnati final.
"Obviously, [Coco] is an amazing player. She has the home crowd here," Muchova said. "It’’s going to be very tough. I’m trying to enjoy this win, then I’ll try to put up a fight against Coco.”
MATCH POINT: Just by stepping foot on court for Tuesday’s quarterfinal, Cirstea, 33, achieved two things at her 15th US Open. She matched her best career run at a Grand Slam and ended a 14-year gap since her last quarterfinal at a major (2009 French Open). Only Mirjana Lucic of Croatia had a longer gap between quarterfinal appearances in Grand Slams in the Open Era: 18 years between her semifinal showings at 1999 Wimbledon and the 2017 Australian Open.
