Karolina Muchova stuns world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka to seal spot in French Open final

Karolina Muchova produced a stunning comeback in the final set to defeat world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday and secure a spot in the French Open final.

Muchova, the last unseeded player left in either the men's or women's draw, saved a match point before fighting back from 5-2 down in the deciding set to seal a 7-6, 6-7, 7-5 win following three hours and 13 minutes of enthralling tennis.

The 26-year-old Czech 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.

At 43 in the world, she is the fourth lowest-ranked woman to reach the final in Paris – where she will take on either world No 1 Iga Swiatek or 14th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia – while it is the fifth year in a row that the final will feature an unseeded player.

Muchova is only the third player ranked outside the top 40 to reach the final at Roland Garros after Jelena Ostapenko (2017) and Swiatek (2020), who both went on to win their respective finals.

For Australian Open champion Sabalenka, defeat ended her run of 12 successive match wins at the Slams as the Belarusian paid a heavy price for 53 unforced errors while the versatile Muchova saved nine of 13 break points.

Defeat also ended the 25-year-old's hopes of taking over as world No 1 as Sabalenka would have replaced Swiatek at the top of the rankings by lifting the title in France.

Keeping us guessing until the very end