The first time the crowd fell silent was the second time Naomi Osaka had a chance to break Karolina Muchova’s serve.
As she had done all match, Muchova shut the door. So Osaka broke it down, in a sequence of shoe-squeaking footwork and topspin, pulling the Czech, one of the hardest players to outmaneuver on the tour, to places on Arthur Ashe Stadium she didn’t want to be.
Muchova, a finalist in 2023, was unruffled. She calmly restored the order that she had instilled for the previous 85 minutes, immediately breaking Osaka back, aided by a string of forehand unforced errors. Fifteen minutes, two routine holds and a tiebreak later, the headline match of the U.S. Open so far, if not it’s best, had its victor, as Muchova triumphed 6-3, 7-6(5).
For a few hours, that was the biggest result of the U.S. Open thus far…
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Karolina Muchova beats Naomi Osaka in headline match of the U.S. Open so far
