Karolína Muchová

Karolína Muchová (born 21 August 1996) is a Czech professional tennis player.

She has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8, achieved on 11 September 2023.

Muchová has reached four finals on the WTA Tour, including the 2023 French Open final, and won one of them at the 2019 Korea Open.

Karolína Muchová was born on the 21st of August 1996 in Olomouc.

Her father is former Czech footballer Josef Mucha.

He introduced her to tennis at the age of seven.

She also has a brother, with whom she did many sports when they were kids.

Since there were tennis courts near her home, she decided to pick up a tennis racket, and then when she was about 12, she chose tennis over handball.

She became the first player to reach the quarterfinals at her Wimbledon debut since Li Na in 2006.

In the quarterfinal, Muchová lost to Elina Svitolina.

She followed this with a quarterfinal at the Bronx Open and third round of the US Open, where she was beaten by Serena Williams.

After winning her opening-match against Dayana Yastremska, Muchová upset two-time Grand Slam champion and 12th seed Garbiñe Muguruza in the second round to score her first top-20 victory, advancing to the third round of the tournament.

In the third round, she lost to Ashleigh Barty.

Muchová turned professional in 2013.

Muchová began playing on the ITF Women's Circuit in October 2013 at the age of 17.

Her first tournament was a $10k event in Dubrovnik, where she reached the second round.

In July the following year, she won her first ITF title in Michalovce, Slovakia.

She then started to produce low-performances until March 2016, when she won her second singles ITF title at Sharm El Sheikh, and two weeks later another event at the same venue.

In July 2017, she reached the final of the $75k ITS Cup in Olomouc, losing there to her countrymate Markéta Vondroušová.

She then made her WTA Tour main-draw debut at the 2017 Korea Open after defeating two low-ranked players, and then lost in the first round of the main draw to Priscilla Hon.

She first rose to prominence at the 2018 US Open, defeating world No. 12 and two-time major champion Garbiñe Muguruza in the second round.

The following year, Muchová reached her first major quarterfinal at Wimbledon by upsetting world No. 3 and tournament favourite, Karolína Plíšková.

At the 2021 Australian Open, she reached the semifinals by defeating world No. 1 and home favorite, Ashleigh Barty, but then lost to Jennifer Brady.

At the 2023 French Open, she reached her first Major final by defeating world No. 2, Aryna Sabalenka, in a close fought semifinal, finishing runner-up to world No. 1, Iga Świątek.

She made her main-draw debut at a major event at the 2018 US Open winning three qualifying matches.

In 2019, she moved to Prague to train.

She stated that her tennis idol growing up was Roger Federer.

She struggled with a lot of injuries during her junior years.

She started the 2019 season with a first-round loss at the Australian Open, losing to Karolína Plíšková.

She then at the Premier-level Qatar Ladies Open made her first WTA Tour quarterfinal by defeating Samantha Stosur and Hsieh Su-wei, but then lost to seed No. 4, Elina Svitolina.

At the Miami Open, she debuted at the Premier Mandatory level-tournaments but was eliminated in the second round by Angelique Kerber.

Her first tour-level final came at the Prague Open where she lost to Jil Teichmann.

Her performance was enough to take her for the first time into the top 100 of the WTA rankings.

In June, she beat Anett Kontaveit to reach the second round of the French Open, where she lost to Irina-Camelia Begu.

In July, she reached quarterfinals of the Wimbledon Championships, beating third seed Karolína Plíšková 13–11 in the final set of their fourth-round match, which lasted over three hours.

Her maiden WTA Tour title came at 2019 Korea Open, where she defeated Magda Linette in the final.

Muchová then continued with good results, reaching semifinals of the Premier-level Kremlin Cup, in which she lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

At the end of the year, she debuted at the WTA Elite Trophy with success in her round-robin group, defeating two Americans, Sofia Kenin and Alison Riske, but later lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinal.

She finished the year as world No. 21.

In 2020, Muchová produced rather mixed results.