New York—Tennis is about feeling for Karolina Muchova.
As the 28-year-old Czech works her way back to form after missing nine months due to wrist surgery, it’s feeling pretty good.
Muchova made it back-to-back quarterfinals at the US Open by defeating one of the most in-form players on tour on Monday in New York. She took out Jasmine Paolini, 6-3, 6-3, and will face Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia for a shot at her second US Open semifinal on Wednesday.
She’s done it by playing her throwback tennis, replete with net forays, aesthetically pleasing volleys, and – in case you missed it – the most incredible shot of the US Open: a behind-the-back hot shot that went viral during week one.
It’s rare in this era of physicality and baseline grinders to see a player tout such an artistic style on court, but Muchova pulls it off, and wins fans as she does it.
“I’m a fan of her,” Paolini said before facing her on Monday. “She’s playing unbelievable. I really love how she plays. She can play every shot, slice, volleys, serve and volleys. She’s a very complete player, I think, very tough opponent.”
Paolini probably wasn’t such a big fan after she was defused by the graceful Czech in Louis Armstrong Stadium on Day 8, but such is life.
“Muchova is like one of my favorite players to watch,” said Andy Roddick on his Served Podcast on Monday. “I don’t know how she hasn’t been great for like ten years. Everytime I watch her I’m like: she is legit good, like really, really, good.”
“She might be one of the Top 5 most athletic players,” his co-host Jon Wertheim replied.
Listening to the Tennis Podcast this week on the 7 train into Flushing Meadows, I heard Matt Roberts compare Muchova to Suzanne Lenglen and thought to myself: YES! Everything but the ankle-length dress and the courtside brandy is there.
There is a rare elegance to Muchova’s tennis, an artistry, a flair.
Muchova says she has to play that way, it’s basically the only way she can stomach the sport. She’s no baseline basher, this crafty Czech.
She does it all with an air of humility. She doesn’t believe she is rebelliously flying the flag in the name of freedom. Muchova is just… Muchova.
“I can’t tell if it’s unique,” she said of her style of tennis on Monday after taking down Paolini, “but yeah, I just like to change it up. I like to do what I do, basically going to the net and actually play a game. Have more fun; not just grind back and play forehands/backhands.
“It’s how I see the game. It’s how I like to play it. It’s the things that I like to as well improve in practices and then bring it on the court.”
It’s nice to see Muchova back, and nice to see her having success with a type of explorative tennis that makes purists rave, but isn’t always considered the most efficient – or effective. It’s tough to do what Muchova does, that’s why nobody plays that way anymore.
You try volleying a dipping, whizzing 100 MPH forehand passing shot and then tell me all tennis players should go to the net more.
Credit to Muchova for not just pulling it off, but making herself a true threat to win majors while doing so.
Before they met in the 2022 Roland-Garros final, Iga Swiatek had this to say about Muchova.
“I really like her game, honestly. I really respect her, and she’s a player who can do anything. She has great touch; she can also speed up the game. She plays with that kind of…I don’t know…freedom in her movements. And she has a great technique. So I watched her matches and I feel like I know her game pretty well.”
Serve-and-volley, the extinct albatross of the sport, is the domain of few on tour these days. Credit Muchova for keeping it alive. She has attempted the tactic on 14 percent of her service points at the US Open, a higher percentage than any other player of the 256 singles players in the main draw.
And, she’s won 86 percent of those points.
Credit Muchova for making 2024 the new 1924 – long live the artistry, the feel and the touch.