PARIS: Unseeded Karolina Muchova saved a match point before battling past second seed Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (5/7), 7-5 on Thursday to reach the French Open final in thrilling fashion and end the Belarusian’s dream of becoming world number one.

Australian Open champion Sabalenka, the overwhelming favourite to win the last-four showdown, would have taken over the top spot in the rankings by winning the title in Paris.

But she failed to convert her chance at 5-2 in the third set and bowed out to the gifted Czech, who cleverly defused her opponent’s power game and took the last five games in a row.

She will meet either top-ranked Iga Swiatek, the 2020 and 2022 French Open winner, or Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia on Saturday.

“I don’t really know what happened. It’s unbelievable, I tried to keep fighting and it worked. I’m so happy,” a beaming Muchova said.

The last unseeded player left in the men’s and women’s draw, Muchova did not attempt to match Sabalenka’s massive hitting power from the baseline.

Instead the Czech, who battled back from the mid-200s into the top 50 after an injury in 2021, opted for a lighter touch. She sliced the ball to take the pace off, playing Sabalenka’s backhand and hitting drop shots to force the tall Belarusian into the net.

“The atmosphere, the people pushing me in all the match. I just keep fighting and it worked,” added Muchova.

Asked about her versatile game she said: “I don’t want to hear it, to get it into my head, to get cocky. I am trying to play my game. I am so glad it worked so well.”

“We worked on it together,” she said turning to her box. “It is our success.”

She added Sabalenka to an impressive list of victims in Paris which included eighth seed Maria Sakkari in the first round and 2021 runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarter-final.

Only three women ranked lower than Muchova have made the final before in Paris, including the then-teenaged Swiatek who was 54th when she claimed her maiden Grand Slam title in 2020.

In Wednesday’s night session, Casper Ruud set up a semi-final after German Alexander Zverev after the 2022 runner-up beat error-prone sixth seed Holger Rune 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 for a fifth win in six meetings against the Dane.

“I kind of looked at it as though he was the favourite — he won the last time we played and he’s had a better year than me so far,” said Ruud who lost to Rune on clay in Rome last month. Fourth seed Ruud is the in-form clay court player with 86 wins on the surface since 2020.

Zverev, who returns to the semi-finals a year after leaving Roland Garros in a wheelchair, holds a 2-1 head-to-head advantage over the Norwegian but the two have never met on clay.

It will be Zverev’s sixth Grand Slam semi-final and will be played on the same Philippe Chatrier Court where he suffered torn ankle ligaments against Rafael Nadal 12 months ago.

“It’s going to be hopefully a fun one,” Ruud, runner-up to Nadal 12 months ago, said of his next match. “I think it’s great to see Sascha back. “Both for him and me, this is our biggest result this year. We’ll try to play with shoulders down and just try to enjoy it.

“It’s been a tough year for Zverev and he has fought his way back, and is back in the semis. The beginning of this year for me has not been great, so it’s great to get a good result here.”

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2023