By: Josephine Zhou

26-year-old Karolina Muchova dominated the French Open tennis draw as an unseeded player. Along her journey, she defeated world number two Aryna Sablaenka to get into the finals of this Grand Slam tournament, where she will face world number one Iga Swiatek.

Muchova lunged up, down, left, and right to get every fiery ball Swiatek whipped at her. Despite all her efforts, she found herself losing the first set and down a huge 2-5 in the deciding set.

Despite the huge gap in the scoring, Muchova found the right footing and stopped herself from stumbling towards defeat. She fought back long and hard and won the second set 7-5.

The third and final set was close at 4-6, but Muchova lost the trophy and €2,300,300 check.

Muchova is “a little bit out of the radar, but she always plays great tennis,” said Sabalenka. “It’s a little bit tricky to build a point against her.”

As a tough opponent, Muchova has suffered many injuries throughout her career. As a late teen, a growth spurt pushed her to a height of 5’11” and spurred back and knee troubles.

Despite these injuries, she made it to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and the Semifinals of the Australian Open. But the injuries came pouring back, starting with a sprained ankle.

Muchova entered the French Open as 43rd in the world, unseeded, and beat eighth seed Maria Sakkari right off the bat.

“Here and there I had to let it out and scream a little bit,” she said. “It was crazy out there.”