Coco Gauff’s next Wimbledon opponent, Karolína Muchová, might be her most formidable
Karolína Muchová, a 29-year-old from the Czech Republic looking to make her second Grand Slam final, meets Coco Gauff, the 22-year-old American who broke through in her mid-teens and already has two majors to her name.
Their match on Centre Court is set up to be a contest between Muchová, who has always seemed a natural for grass, and Gauff, who is still figuring that surface out. But their Wimbledon results have been similar, rather than far apart. Muchová had not been past the fourth round in four tries before this year, while Gauff arrived in south-west London having not won a match on grass in two years.
Many of these assumptions have been based on the pair’s playing styles.
Muchová possesses the kind of creativity that fits the romantic ideal of a grass-court specialist and Wimbledon champion. She can slice, can volley expertly and has the imagination and improvisation to come up with shots that don’t seem possible. In her fourth-round win over fellow Czech and 2024 Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejčíková, she produced a one-handed flicked backhand pass in the second set and then an almost half-volley lob on match point.
Watching Muchová glide across the turf and put away volleys against Naomi Osaka in their Tuesday quarterfinal was like being transported to the days when players such as Martina Navratilova and Stefan Edberg were doing such things on their way to Wimbledon titles.
Players nowadays largely volley out of necessity, or as a surprise tactic; Muchová does it with intent, stooping low to the ground and stepping into the shot. She idolized Roger Federer growing up, and her former coach Emil Miške used to show her clips of great volleyers, including Edberg and Pat Rafter, for her to try to emulate.
Gauff’s game, by contrast, appears at first unsuited to the low-bouncing grass courts. Her forehand, which is prone to breaking down under pressure, can be rushed when playing on natural turf, and her foot speed can work against her rather than for her.
At this year’s Wimbledon, Gauff has countered these weaknesses, partly by making adjustments (like using serve-and-volley plays) and partly by dragging her opponents into a match that suits her skill set more than theirs. In her three-set quarterfinal win over No. 4 seed and compatriot Jessica Pegula, she discomfited her opponent by hitting high-bouncing forehands that pushed Pegula further behind the baseline and out of her comfort zone.
In the fourth round, against the Swiss No. 11 seed Belinda Bencic, Gauff played front-foot tennis, rushing the net and trying to take time away from her opponent. In both matches, her serve was potent, with her first-serve efficiency outweighing her double faults.
But if Gauff is to capture the Venus Rosewater dish Saturday, she will largely do it her way, by making her opponents feel uncomfortable and outlasting them — an especially useful skill at one of the hottest Wimbledons on record.
Against Osaka, Muchová demonstrated that she is capable of meeting Wimbledon in the middle.
There were some spectacular shots, but the guts of the win came from the fundamentals. She served brilliantly — finishing the match with her sixth and seventh aces — and was lethal on the forehand side, especially with the first shot after the serve.
Still, talk to former pros about which players they most enjoy watching, and the answer is invariably Muchová, who many see as a throwback to when they were still on court — 1990 U.S. Open champion Gabriela Sabatini, seven-time major winners John McEnroe and Justine Henin and nine-time Wimbledon champ Navratilova have all singled her out in recent interviews.
During mixed-zone interviews on Tuesday at the All England Club, former world No. 9 Andrea Petkovic said that Muchová “has the perfect game for grass”. Australian Open 2018 champion Caroline Wozniacki said: “I love watching her play. She’s a popular player among other players, too. Her serve, her volley game, the way she slices — this surface suits her very much.”
Where Muchová’s effortlessness hides the solidity she is bringing to her tennis, Gauff’s refusal to give up is sometimes used as a catch-all to overshadow how good a player she is.
Her first Grand Slam title, at the U.S. Open in 2023, came after she had hired Brad Gilbert — who literally wrote the book on “Winning Ugly” — as her coach. Her second came at the French Open last year, when she enraged opponent Aryna Sabalenka with her retrieval skills on a windy day that made pretty tennis borderline impossible.
And while Muchová is no doubt the flashier player, Gauff has attributes that the Czech would dearly love to have.
Gauff has not missed a Grand Slam since making her debut as a 15-year-old here at Wimbledon in 2019. Muchová has had to manage several injuries and was out for nearly 10 months across 2023 and 2024 following wrist surgery. Even after she came back, issues recurred, and at last year’s Wimbledon, she couldn’t hit a topspin backhand because of the pain.
When it comes to finals experience, Gauff also has the edge.
She has won 11 of her 16, while Muchová has sometimes had difficulties closing out matches — there was the U.S. Open semifinal of 2024 where she led Pegula by a set and a break, with a point for another, before missing a volley and fading, while on Sunday she failed to serve out the match against Krejčíková and lost five straight games before winning in three sets.
Until February, Muchová had only won one career title — a 250-level event, the lowest rung of the WTA Tour, in 2019. After bringing in Sven Groeneveld, the experienced Dutch coach, she won the biggest title of her career at the Qatar Open, a WTA 1000 tournament (the rung below the majors). She followed that up with the Bad Homburg Tennis Open title in Germany last month (another 250 event) and is now at a personal best of No. 6 in the live rankings.
“I would say I’m still honestly trying to work on the same things, to be aggressive, go for my shots, play a lot of net balls, trying to just move forward a lot,” Muchová said in March this year, during an interview at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif.
“With Sven, he doesn’t just have one option and we’re going to do it that way. He is very open to what we’re going to work on and little improvements, and still every day when he sees some things, we just bring it on the table, me too, and then we can talk about it and then just work on the little things on the court.”
Muchová has made great strides this year, mixing steel with her well-established silk, but Gauff will be the ultimate test for her ability to control the match from the forecourt. Gauff is a world-class counterpuncher and has dominated their head-to-head record, winning the pair’s first six meetings while dropping just one set. Muchová did win their seventh and most recent match, on indoor clay at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany, in April.
“She is a great athlete overall,” Muchová said in a news conference Tuesday when asked about why Gauff has been such a difficult opponent for her. “One of the best in the world, in our sport. It was tough to play against her. I’m happy we have 0-0 (as their head-to-head record) on the grass. That’s a bit better balance for me there.
“Yeah, I mean, she gives you a lot of balls back. She has a lot of weapons. She is a big fighter, which as well gives a lot of, yeah, things to her game to make it awkward for me.”
These two players have many attributes the other would love to possess, but today they will go after the same prize: a place in their first Wimbledon final.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tennis, Women’s Tennis
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