World number one Iga Swiatek will face the 43rd-ranked Karolina Muchova in the 2023 French Open FINAL on Saturday, June 10. Get the predictions and odds of this Iga Swiatek v Karolina Muchova match along with its preview, head to head, and tips here.
- Other French Open match previews & predictions options here
Iga Swiatek v Karolina Muchova Head to Head
There has been one previous meeting between these two players which came on the clay courts of the Prague Open in 2019. Muchova had come back from being a set down to get past Swiatek.
They had also faced off in an exhibition tournament on clay during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, where Muchova had won again in three sets.
Also Read:
Swiatek Finally Faces Some Resistance
Coming into her semifinal, Swiatek had dropped 15 games in five matches. That’s a whopping average of a mere three games lost every match or winning every match with a 6-1, 6-2 scoreline on an average.
Even against an opponent as tricky and talented as Cori Gauff in her quarterfinal, Swiatek came away a 6-4, 6-2 winner.
Which is why it was a bit of a surprise to see Swiatek face a challenge against Beatriz Haddad Maia in the semifinal. Not that it changed the narrative too much for the world number – she still came through in straight sets – but Swiatek did face a set-point before winning it off her second match-point.
Swiatek was on court for two hours and 11 minutes – a very long match by her previous wins here – as she registered a 6-2, 7-6 (7) victory over Haddad Maia.
The two traded breaks in the very first two games of the match before Swiatek took control of the opening set with two more breaks of serves. It was Haddad Maia who went 3-1 up in the second only for Swiatek level things out at 3-3.
She then faced break-points in the seventh and ninth games, saved them all before falling 5-6 behind in the tie-breaker that followed.
Swiatek saved that set-point, missed a match-point at 7-6 before clinching the match off the second chance.
Can she now make it two Grand Slam victories in a row at the French Open?
Also Read:
Muchova Sends Sabalenka Packing
How Muchova managed to win her semifinal against Aryna Sabalenka will go into the folklore. It wasn’t quite at the same level at Steffi Graf’s shocking comeback win against Jana Novotna at the 1993 Wimbledon but it wasn’t too far either.
Muchova had traded the first two sets with Sabalenka in tie-breakers with the Czech winning the first and then missing out on a chance to wrap it up in the second despite taking a 2-0 lead.
In the third set, however, Sabalenka broke Muchova in the sixth game and then held to 30 in the seventh to take a 5-2 lead. Muchova was then forced to save a match-point off her own serve to pull one back and make it 5-3, from where on it was all one-way traffic.
In fact, from the point where Sabalenka had a match-point, Muchova went on to win 20 of the next 24 points to register a shocking end to the match.
Sabalenka’s 53 unforced errors came back to bite her but more importantly it was Muchova who made just 27 of those mistakes and hit 38 winners that tilted the match in the Czech’s favour.
Muchova had gone into the match as a 5/2 underdog despite having stunned Maria Sakkari in the first round of the competition and beaten former semifinalist Nadia Podoroska and former finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in some of the previous rounds.
Can she now hold her own against Swiatek?
Swiatek v Muchova Prediction and Tip
No prizes for guessing who the favourite is but for Swiatek to go into the final at 1/8 odds is quite an indicator about how much of a no-contest this has been tipped to be. We think we could see a touch more fight than this even if it were to end in straight sets for Swiatek.
Tips:
- Low Risk Tip: Over 18.5 games in the match: 4/5
- Moderate Risk Tip: Swiatek to win AND Over 18.5 games in the match: 11/10
The 2023 French Open will be played from May 28 to June 11. You can get all the tennis betting news with our tennis betting blog here. Also get rest of the tennis match previews here.
Be the first to comment