French Open - Karolina Muchova returns to form to down fourth seed Maria Sakkari in second round

Karolina Muchova returned to the form she showed in the first half of last year by knocking fourth seed Maria Sakkari out in the second round of the French Open. A tight match was settled by two tie-breaks, with the Czech coming through 7-6 7-6 in 2 hours and 27 minutes. Ad/> Sakkari has become the second highest seed to exit the women's draw, after the shock defeat of reigning champion Barbora Krejcikova.

Roland-Garros‘Looking forward to home support’ — Raducanu excited for grass seasonAN HOUR AGO The Greek player was unfortunate to be playing an opponent in Muchova, who is arguably at a false ranking. The former Australian Open semi-finalist did not play between her US Open defeat last summer and the Miami Open in March, meaning she has slipped from a career high ranking of 19 in May last year, to 81. Sakkari — who reached the last four at Roland-Garros in 2021 — got off to the worst possible start.

Muchova broke in the fourth seed’s first service game to 30, before consolidating that in the next game. The Greek player was settling into the match and after facing set points, broke back in the ninth game, but had to save set point in her next game before levelling. Having fought so hard to get back on level pegging, Sakkari again showed her resilience by saving three further set points at 6-5, coming through to force a tie-break.

Momentum swung both ways, but Muchova finally sealed the set on her own serve, taking the breaker 7-5. Raducanu dream over as she lets one-set lead slip against Sasnovich 'Dominating all the players' — Wilander says Swiatek has 'no weaknesses' The second set was just as tight as the first, and both players traded breaks of serve in the early stages. They were struggling to hold, and after a