Swiatek sets up Muchova showdown for French Open crown

PARIS :Defending champion Iga Swiatek was pushed hard by Beatriz Haddad Maia at the French Open on Thursday, but the top seed soaked up the pressure to overcome the Brazilian 6-2 7-6(7) and reach a third final in four years at Roland Garros.

She will play on Saturday the unseeded Karolina Muchova, who saved a match point before overcoming second seed Aryna Sabalenka 7-6(5) 6-7(5) 7-5 to end the Belarusian's hopes of becoming world number one.

Swiatek, who lifted the Suzanne Lenglen Cup last year and in 2020, was put through the wringer by Haddad Maia but held her nerve in a tense tiebreak to see off the 14th seed's challenge.

"She has a really nice game for clay courts with a lot of top spin," Swiatek said of Haddad Maia, who beat the Pole in their only other meeting in Toronto last year.

"She can also play flat and aggressive. She's a fighter. For every match, she played fierce."

Sabalenka would have taken over top spot in the rankings by winning the title in Paris, but the Australian Open champion wasted her opportunity at 5-2 in the third set against Muchova and bowed out after losing the last five games in a row.

That made Muchova only the third player ranked outside the top 40 to reach the Roland Garros final after Jelena Ostapenko (2017) and Swiatek (2020) - both of whom won the title.

SKILFUL BEST

The last unseeded player left in the men's and women's draw, Muchova, who fought back from the mid-200s into the top 50 after an injury in 2021, was at her skilful best to subdue the big-hitting Sabalenka.

"I don't really know what happened," Muchova said. "The atmosphere, the people pushing me in all the match. I just keep fighting and it worked. I really don't know what happened. I am so happy."

There was light at the end of the