Karolina Muchova snaps Aryna Sabalenka's 15-match win streak to reach Beijing semifinals

Aryna Sabalenka’s 15-match win streak came to a sudden end Friday in Beijing at the hands of a familiar foe.

Karolina Muchova erased a break deficit in their decider, winning the last four games to turn the tables on the No. 1 seed at the China Open with a 7-6 (5), 2-6, 6-4 victory.

“Tennis is really a rollercoaster. You never know. I just tried to fight for every ball. In the end, it was worth it,” Muchova said on court.

In the opening set, the Czech saved a pair of set points when she served at 4-5. Though Sabalenka seemingly took control of the contest, Muchova’s rally saw her close with the final 10 points of the encounter.

Sabalenka suffered her first defeat since August 10 when she was eliminated by Amanda Anisimova in the quarterfinals of Toronto. While the loss saw the world No. 2 miss her chance to overtake Iga Swiatek in the race to the WTA Finals, Sabalenka will have another chance next week at the 1000-level event in Wuhan. Swiatek withdrew from her third consecutive event while announcing that she has split from coach Tomas Wiktorowski.

Muchova has now won her past three meetings with Sabalenka, notably reaching her first major final at the 2023 French Open after saving a match point. The 28-year-old is bidding to win her first title in more than five years, having lifted her inaugural trophy at Seoul in September 2019.

For a chance to end that drought, Muchova will first need to conquer home favorite Zheng Qinwen. The No. 5 seed battled back to defeat No. 17 seed Mirra Andreeva, 5-7, 6-0, 6-4.

Zheng overcame a tough serving day that saw her double fault eight times and win just 14 of 45 second-serve points by countering on return with nine breaks against the 17-year-old’s serve. The Wuhan native is through to her first WTA 1000 semifinal.

In July, Zheng denied Muchova to win the Palermo title leading into her memorable gold medal run at the Paris Olympics.