Karolina Muchova beats Beatriz Haddad Maia and returns to the US Open semifinals

NEW YORK – Karolina Muchova is in the U.S. Open semifinals for the second straight year, overcoming an upset stomach to cap her return from wrist surgery with a 6-1, 6-4 win over No. 22 Beatriz Haddad Maia on Wednesday.

Muchova lost to eventual winner Coco Gauff in the 2023 semifinals at Flushing Meadows and then missed nearly 10 months due to a wrist injury she sustained during the tournament.

The Czech returned to action in June, just before Wimbledon, and just over two months later she is in her fourth Grand Slam semifinal.

“Technically, I feel better with every match here on the court and that definitely helps,” said Muchova. “More matches and the experience I gain on the court also help me a lot to be more confident and feel my shots.”

Muchova will face No. 6 Jessica Pegula in Thursday’s semifinal. Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka, the No. 2 seed, will face Grand Slam debutant Emma Navarro in the other semifinal.

Muchova dominated the first set, quickly building a 5-0 lead and closing it out in 35 minutes. Then the second set became a challenge as both players struggled physically on a sunny afternoon.

Muchova left the court at one point to go to the bathroom, as she said, while Haddad Maia appeared to point to her chest mid-set and try to take a deep breath before burying her head in a towel while coaches attended to her.

“I’m fighting a bit of a virus. I’m feeling a bit sick,” Muchova said in her post-match press conference. “I hope (the toilet break) didn’t bother her, didn’t bother people.”

Muchova had to get used to dealing with pain.

She had just reached her second major semifinal of 2023 after losing to Swiatek in the French Open final when she was forced to stop playing after the US Open. When she finally returned to the tour this year, she only had 11 matches left before returning to Flushing Meadows.

That was enough time for Muchova to rediscover her game. She didn’t drop a set in her five matches, finishing with an ace in the middle. She is the 19th unseeded woman in the Open Era to reach the semifinals in New York and only the fifth to do so without dropping a set, joining Mima Jausovec (1976), Flavia Pennetta (2013), Peng Shuai (2014) and qualifier Emma Raducanu, who won the title in 2021.

Muchova, who missed most of the first half of the 2022 season due to back, abdominal and ankle problems, said she does not like to talk about her injuries.

“I’ve been through a lot of them,” says 28-year-old Muchova. “Yes, the last one, the wrist surgery, was one of the worst I’ve ever had. When I look back now, I think, ‘Oh, time has flown by and I feel strong again.’

“But when I think back to February, I have to say that I wasn’t always so positive. To be honest, there were tough moments when I couldn’t move my arm and couldn’t do much.”

Muchova noted that she is now pain-free and feels fit: “Apart from that, I am a little sick – but the body is fine.”

Many fans had not even taken their seats at Arthur Ashe Stadium when Muchova defeated Haddad Maia in a 14-point game to take a 2-0 lead. The Brazilian was down the same amount in her third-round match against Anna Kalinskaya but won the next game to turn things around, helped by a video review that earned her a point.

The US Tennis Association acknowledged the next day that Haddad Maia’s shot was illegal, but the umpire was not shown the replay that would have proved this.

Muchova did not allow a turnaround this time, denying Haddad Maia – the first Brazilian to reach the US Open quarterfinals since Maria Bueno in 1968 – the second major semifinal of her career. She made it that far at the French Open last year but said she had trouble concentrating on Wednesday.

“I didn’t put pressure on myself because of her. It was about me and myself, it was the ghosts in my head and I know all tennis players have that,” said Haddad Maia. “Today it was like an internal battle. I couldn’t handle it.”

Haddad Maia confirmed that she had slight chest problems during the game but felt “okay”.

ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.