Muchova sets sights on Swiatek and Poland Garros in French Open final

Remember Karolina Muchova? The last person to beat Ash Barty at the Australian Open. After disappearing for two years, she’s popped up in the final of the French Open.

The majors outdate the Ashes. Punch magazine reacted to the death of English cricket with the famous poem starting, “Well done, cornstalks! Whipt us,” before the first contest for the urn, which began in 1882.

Wimbledon had been up and running for five years by the time Ivo Bligh stepped off the ship to tour Australia.

In the 146 years since Spencer Gore chipped and charged his way to the first Wimbledon title, the city with the most slam champions has been Sydney, believe it or not, followed by New York, Paris, Melbourne and Moscow.

Brisbane was trying to nudge a quick single up the list when a determined young woman called Ashleigh Barty played the 2021 Australian Open quarter-finals, ripping through the opening set against Karolina Muchova like she was tearing off a Band-Aid before the Czech did what everyone does when they need to alter the course of a match. She called for a medical time-out.

Muchova complained that her head was spinning. True in umpteen ways. She was down 6-1 and they’d only been on court a sec. Barty had barely missed a ball. Muchova’s head was spinning for real, she said, in that she felt nauseous and dizzy and faint.

A doctor put a finger to her neck. Felt for a pulse. She was showing no signs of one as a competitor but a faint one was detected. She was taken from the court and given smelling salts and the magic sponge and she perked up enough to run through the final two sets, 6-3 6-2, in a shock result that promised a decent future for a tidy enough player.

Well done, cornstalk. Whipped her. The last match Barty lost at Melbourne Park. Muchova went down to American Jennifer Brady in the semi-finals. Then came two years when Muchova again showed no sign of a pulse, losing early at most majors, but now the understated 26-year-old has bobbed up in the final of the French Open after stunning Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 in a thrilling semi-final.

In her moment of triumph, she placed a hand above her heart. Checking for a pulse?

The only upside for the emotional, likeable, volatile Sabalenka was that finally, she had an opponent willing to shake her hand after three hours and 13 minutes of parry and thrust. Muchova will play Iga Swiatek in Saturday night’s final after the world No. 1 beat Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-2 7-6 (9-7).

She hasn’t lost a set all tournament and she’s the defending champion. Poland Garros.

Muchova versus Sabalenka. What a match, what a match. Muchova’s not long returned from a seven-month injury absence. She smoothed a backhand down-the-line winner to finish off Sabalenka and reach her first major final.

She peeled off five games in a row thanks to a bit of old-school, Barty-esque all-court prowess helped in no small part by Sabalenka’s implosion.

She had the match in her racquet and pocket but played a careless game at 5-2 in the third and then capitulated.

A match point went up in smoke. Muchova was exhausted but she had a sniff. She won 20 of the next 24 points. More accurately, Sabalenka lost them.

“Emotions, it‘s been a roller coaster,” said the unseeded Muchova. “Two-five in the third, but I still kind of knew it’s just one break and I was waiting for my chances. I just trying to play point by point.

“Super-glad that I turned it around and then managed to win the match.

“It just shows me that I can play. I can compete and obviously the matches are super-close. Even today, match-ball down, you really never know if I win or lose, but it’s great to know that I have the chance to win. I win against the top players and for sure that boosts my confidence.”

Sabalenka would have become world No. 1 if she won the French. Emotional at the best of times, cornstalk would have been distraught about this.

The following is easier said than done, I grant you, but she shouldn’t have taken things so personally at Roland-Garros.

Perhaps the emotional turmoil was too much in the end.

No-one blames the Belarusian for the war against Ukraine but her country is complicit in the deaths of 130,000 civilians.

She should forgive any Ukrainian player for taking their own stand, for sending their own message, by refusing to have anything to do with anything or anyone from Russia or Belarus.

Sabalenka let it get to her. She said she felt “unsafe” at a press conference that centred on the war.

Aggrieved Ukrainian peers thought she might like to try walking down the main street of Kyiv when missiles and drones were falling from the sky for a true dip in feelings of security.

I’ve been to a million press conferences at Roland-Garros and the only bombshell in that room is when a player says they’re working with a new coach. Little else to fear, I would have thought.

And yet she was in a curly position. This may have been mentioned before but war, huh, what is it good for?

She doesn’t want it any more than Volodymyr Zelensky does. Perhaps speaking too strongly against her government would lead to her swimming with the fishies.

“I really felt bad not coming here,” Sabalenka said when she returned to the press room before the semi-finals.

“I couldn’t sleep. Like, all those bad feelings were in my head. I don’t regret the decisions. I felt really disrespected and felt really bad. I mean, grand slam, it’s enough pressure to handle.

“I tried to focus on myself, on my game. I really hope you guys will understand me, my feelings. You know, I really respect all of you and I’m always open.

“You can ask whatever you want. You will get all the information. But in the last press conference, I felt like my press conference became a political TV show.

“I’m not an expert in politics. I’m just a tennis player. I don’t support war, meaning I don’t support (Belarus president) Alexander Lukashenko right now.”

Muchova has a pulse again. Back, abdominal and ankle injuries have healed. Well done, cornstalk.

“I think everything has its own time,” she said before attempting to conquer Poland Garros.

“In the past, it was not easy. That’s actually what makes me appreciate this result even more now. I know what I have been through in the past. To be now in a grand slam final, it’s my dream.

“There have been many moments, many lows, I would say, from one injury to another.

“When I missed the Australian Open last year, and I was in a pretty bad state health-wise, some doctors told me, you know, maybe you’ll not do sport anymore.

“But I always kept positive in my mind. I always tried to work and do everything I could to be able to come back. It’s ups and downs, in life, all the time.”