Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic outlasted Coco Gauff 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (10) to reach her first career Wimbledon final on Friday in London.
Gauff, a two-time Grand Slam champion, also was attempting to earn her first shot at a Wimbledon championship round.
Muchova, the No. 10 seed, won the grass-court Bad Homburg Open last week in Germany — her second victory of the season and third of her career. And into the second week at Wimbledon. She won her round of 16 match against fellow Czech and former Grand Slam winner Barbora Krejcikova in three sets.
She rolled over Gauff in the first set, converting two of four break chances while Gauff missed all five of her opportunities. The Czech had nine winners and seven unforced errors, with seven and 12, respectively, for the American.
Gauff took over in the second set, using three aces and her skills at the net, where she won 11 of 12 points.
The deciding set was a back-and-forth nail biter and both players failed to capitalize on a pair of break chances to move ahead. Instead, the match stayed on serve. Gauff easily served out her final game to send the match to a 10-point tiebreaker.
Muchova got up early, taking 4-1 and 6-3 leads. But Gauff battled back, evening the score after three straight points.
Tied at 7, the players couldn’t hold serve for the next six points. Up 9-8 and serving at match point, Gauff couldn’t convert. Muchova let her match-point opportunity slip away but took the lead at 11-10. Gauff served to stay in the match, but after a brilliant rally between the two women, Gauff hit the ball into the net.
On Saturday, Muchova will play the winner of the late semifinal on Thursday, which features her Czech compatriot, Linda Noskova, against Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine, The latter is the No. 13 seed, the former the No. 9.
Neither has played in a Grand Slam final.
–Field Level Media
