Karolína Muchová

Muchová at the 2018 US Open

Muchová began playing on the ITF Women's Circuit in October 2013 at the age of 17. Her first tournament was $10K event in Dubrovnik, where she reached second round.[5] In July following year, she won her first ITF title at the $10K event in Michalovce in Slovakia. She then started to produce low-performances until March 2016, when she won her second singles ITF title at the $10K event in Sharm El Sheikh, and two weeks later another one, also there.[6] In July 2017, she reached final of the $75K event 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.[5] She made her main-draw debut at a Grand Slam event at the 2018 US Open winning three qualifying matches. After winning her opening-match against Dayana Yastremska,[7] Muchová upset two-time major 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.[8] In the third round she lost to Ashleigh Barty.[9]

Muchová at the 2019 French Open

She started season of 2019 with first-round loss at the Australian Open, losing to Karolína Plíšková.[10] She then at the Premier-level Qatar Open made her first WTA quarterfinal, after defeating Samantha Stosur and Hsieh Su-Wei, but then lost to seed No. 4 Elina Svitolina.[5][11] At the Miami Open, she debuted at the Premier Mandatory level-tournaments. She was eliminated in the second round by Angelique Kerber.[12] Her first WTA final came at the 2019 Prague Open, where she lost to Jil Teichmann.[13] Her performance was enough to take her for the first time into the top 100 of the WTA rankings.[14] In June she beat Anett Kontaveit to reach the second round of the French Open,[15] where she lost to Irina-Camelia Begu.[16] In July, she reached the quarter-final of Wimbledon, beating third seed Karolína Plíšková 13–11 in the final set of their fourth round match, which lasted over three hours.[17] She became the first player to reach the quarter-finals at her Wimbledon debut since Li Na in 2006.[18] In the quarterfinal, Muchová lost to Elina Svitolina.[19] She followed this with quarterfinal at the Bronx Open and third-round of the US Open, where she was beat by Serena Williams.[5][20] Her maiden WTA title came at 2019 Korea Open, where she defeated Magda Linette in the final.[21] Muchová then continued with good results, reaching semifinal of the Premier-level Kremlin Cup, where she lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.[22] 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,[23] but later lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinal.[24] After that, she finished year as world No. 21, that is also her career-highest singles ranking.[14]

Muchová did not produce good performances in 2020. Despite making weak results, she also made some minor progress. She reached second round of the Australian Open for the first time in her career. There she lost to CiCi Bellis in straight-sets.[25] She then played for the first time at the Qatar Open, where she also recorded her first win over Magda Linette,[5] but lost to seed No. 7 Kiki Bertens in the second round.[26] After the six month suspension of the WTA Tour due to COVID-19 pandemic, she first played at the Cincinnati Open. There she beat qualifier Ann Li in the first round,[5] before she lost to Naomi Osaka in the next round.[27] Muchová's best performance of the season came at the US Open, where beat Venus Williams,[28] Anna Kalinskaya and Sorana Cîrstea,[29][30] to reached her first round of 16 there. She then faced Victoria Azarenka, but lost after the overturn made by Azarenka.[31] By the end of the year, she reached only first round of the French Open and second round of the Ostrava Open.[5] She spend whole year inside top 30.[14]