'She's getting better and better': Karolina Muchova braces for ‘tough’ Naomi Osaka test in US Open quarterfinals

Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova has admitted that she is expecting a ‘tough’ fixture against the former world number one Naomi Osaka in the quarterfinal of the US Open. The 29-year-old cemented her spot in the last eight of the fourth and the final Grand Slam of the year after beating Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk with a score of 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.

On the other hand, Osaka defeated the two-time Grand Slam winner, America’s Coco Gauff, in straight sets with a score of 6-2, 6-2 to secure her spot in the quarterfinals of the competition. It will be the fifth meeting between the two players in professional tennis. In the previous four meetings, both players emerged victorious on two occasions.

Their most recent meeting came in the second round of the Australian Open earlier this year, where Osaka came out on top in a hard-fought contest with a score of 1-6, 6-1, 6-3. Muchova spoke to the media after the match and admitted that she is expecting another ‘tough’ outing against Osaka. Muchova also praised her next round’s opponent and believes that Osaka has only gone on to become ‘better’ as the round went on.

“Yeah, she's [Osaka] great player,” said Muchova. “I think she picked up her form again and she's getting better and better. And you can see it on her results. We practice here, actually. So, yeah, I expect I expect a really, really tough battle. And it's going to be it's going to be a challenge for sure. Like the last, let's say, last three times or the difference. I think she just now got more matches under her belt, winning matches. And I'd say she's not. Yeah, I'd say just she got that belief again that she can be the best and trust her strokes more and playing really fast, really good. So, yeah, it's going to be tough.”

Marta played really great, says Muchova

Talking about her performance in the match, Muchova was of the opinion that she was happy to come on the right side of a result after a ‘tough’ and ‘long’ battle. She also praised her opponent, Kostyuk, who, according to her, played ‘great’ tennis. “Yeah, I mean, another tough battle, long battle,” said Muchova. “I think Marta played really great. It's tough to find a spot. She's so athletic. I felt at some point that she was everywhere. So I'm just glad that in the third set, like in the previous matches, I regrouped. I focused more on myself, was a bit more aggressive and managed to win the match.”

With that result, three Czech Republic women's players will be featuring in the quarterfinals of the US Open. The other two players are Barbora Krejcikova and Marketa Vondrousova, who will face America’s Jessica Pegula and Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka. Muchova was asked during the press conference about the secret behind the Czech Republic’s women’s players' success in the ongoing mega-event. In response to that, Muchova stated that players' success on the court is largely down to their own hard work. She also credited the tennis authorities in the country for having a lot of women’s tournament,s which help them improve.

“I think we are more one by one, honestly,” said Muchova. “But yeah, when we see each other here in the locker, I think we are all happy for each other. And we talk and and all that, obviously, with Marketa, we are from the same club. So I know her a little better than than Bara. But with both of them, we just, you know, nice relationship. We support each other. And I think that there's three of us in the quarters. It's so nice for our country. The system, I'd say again, it's more. I think I wouldn't really say it's a system. I think it's, you know, for me personally, it was I was practicing most of the time in my hometown, town, always found myself a coach and built my team. I think for most of us, it was this way. It's either family or parents helping out. And then when I was older, I moved to Prague and went to the bigger club where there was more players to have more opportunities. But I wouldn't say it was it was system for me. But it was nice that we had a lot of tournaments that we could compete each other in Czech. So that would be probably the one thing that I would say is great in Czech Republic.”