Aryna Sabalenka dramatically gives away Roland Garros final place to unseeded Karolina Muchova | Tennis

In the first set it was equal for a long time until the number 43 in the world broke Sabalenka out of nowhere. The winner of the Australian Open repeated that trick one game later. In the tiebreak, the revelation of the tournament was just a little sharper. The tiebreak of the first set went to Muchova 7-5.

A set later it immediately seemed to go wrong for Sabalenka. Muchova led quickly with a set and a break. But even now she quickly gave it away without being able to enjoy it. As in the previous act, a tiebreak had to decide who could win the set. The set ended with the same score, namely 7-5 in the tiebreak, but now it went to Sabalenka. A decisive set had to decide who became the first finalist at this edition of Roland Garros.

The differences between the two players were also minimal in the deciding set. With a 3-2 lead by Sabalenka, her Czech opponent went wrong with an unnecessary foul on break point. After that, the game seemed over. The level of the number 2 in the world remained constant, which meant that a grand slam final was increasingly out of sight for Muchova.

And when everyone thought it was over, the nerves of the Belarusian raced through her body. She was allowed to serve for the game – having already missed a match point in the game before – but it was Muchova who took that game and came back to 5-5. The momentum had turned. Sabalenka didn’t seem to get the ball in anymore. The Czech won every game from 2-5 and thus qualified in three tough sets and after more than 3 hours for the final at Roland Garros.

Iga Swiatek (WTA-1) and Beatriz Haddad Maia (WTA-14) will compete against each other in the second semifinal later today.