No. 3 Match of '23: Karolina Muchova's survival skills in Paris prove too much for Sabalenka

Tennis Channel will re-air this match on December 12 at 7 P.M. ET.

Extenuating circumstances have added drama to a few of this year’s Top 10 matches. Two of them finished in the wee hours of the morning. One was a proxy for Ukrainian resistance. Another featured a late-bloomer making a wide-eyed Cinderella run.

Our No. 3 match was helped by its stage: Court Philippe Chatrier’s atmosphere is the most witheringly nerve-racking in tennis. Otherwise, though, Karolina Muchova’s three-hour comeback win over Aryna Sabalenka earns its spot purely for tennis reasons: the frantic brilliance of its shotmaking, and its edge-of-your-seat theatre, both of which increased as the afternoon went on.

The match offered, to an extent, a WTA version of David vs. Goliath. Sabalenka was the second seed, had won the year’s first major, was coming off a win over No. 1 Iga Swiatek in Madrid, and looked destined for a rematch with the Pole in Paris. Muchova, 26, was a highly regarded all-court artiste, but she was unseeded after spending many months sidelined with an abdominal injury.

“‘Maybe you’ll not do sport anymore,’” Muchova said doctors told her. “But I always kept it kind of positive in my mind.”

The match also offered a contrast in styles. Sabalenka employed a modern-day assault: Heavy serve, heavier ground strokes, corner-to-corner forehand combinations, all punctuated with an unrestrained grunt-shriek. Muchova countered with a vintage mix of speeds, spins, drops, lobs, low slices, and sharp volleys. In the process, she may have invented a new way to play on clay, by following a ground stroke forward, sliding through the service box, and closing on top of the net.

Each of their styles inspired the other to finds ways to overcome it. Muchova used her down-the-line backhand to fend off Sabalenka’s inside-out forehand; she finished the first set, 7-5 in the tiebreaker, with a line-drive two-hander that landed an inch inside the sideline. Sabalenka, meanwhile, kept Muchova pinned back with the pace of her forehand. She closed the second set, also 7-5 in the tiebreaker, with a one-two forehand punch.

Sabalenka rode her power through the first seven games of the third. She broke at 3-2 with a backhand missile that the Czech could only wave at, and reached match point at 5-2. But now it was Muchova’s turn to be inspired.

At match point, she followed up a first serve with a forehand winner and a fist-pump. From there, she found ways to have the final say at the end of their frenetic rallies. Eventually, Muchova’s survival skills were too much for Sabalenka, who wilted a little more with each squandered opportunity, until she couldn’t manage a point in the final game. Muchova ended it, fittingly, with a backhand down the line.

“I think everything has its own time,” Muchova said. “In the past, it was not easy. That’s actually what makes me appreciate this result even more.”

Two days later, Muchova would be on the other, heartbreaking side of a three-set defeat to Swiatek. But this graceful talent left Paris having reminded fans of what we’ve been missing, and what she can still bring to the women’s game.