Coco Gauff's best run at Wimbledon ended one match short of the final, and by the slimmest of margins. Karolina Muchova beat her 6-2, 1-6, 7-6(10) on Thursday to reach the final, in a semifinal that came down to a nerve-shredding tiebreaker, ESPN reported.
Three sets, two swings
The match swung hard between the two players. Muchova took the opening set 6-2, only for Gauff to surge back and level it, winning the second 6-1. The decider stayed on serve and tightened until it reached a first-to-10 tiebreaker, the kind of finish that leaves both players a point or two from victory again and again.
"You're up and down in 10 seconds. You have a match point, then match point down," Muchova said afterward of the tiebreaker's swings, according to ESPN.
The point that got away
Gauff had her chance. She held a match point in the tiebreaker but netted a forehand she would have wanted back, and Muchova pounced, converting her own chance to close it out, ESPN reported. For Gauff, already a Grand Slam champion elsewhere, it was still a career-best result at the All England Club, where she had never before gone past the fourth round; that it ended this way made it sting all the more.
Muchova's moment
For Muchova, it is a return to the biggest stage. She reached the French Open final in 2023, and now, on the back of a strong grass-court run, she has a Wimbledon final to play, ESPN reported. Her opponent will come from the other semifinal. Whoever it is, Muchova arrives having shown, over three tense sets, the composure to win the points that matter most.
