Karolina Muchova delivered a dominant performance to defeat Alexandra Eala 6-0, 6-2 in exactly one hour on Monday, reaching her first-ever Miami Open quarterfinal.

The Doha champion crushed last year's semifinalist with clinical precision, firing 20 winners against just 11 unforced errors while the Filipina tennis star managed only seven winners and 13 unforced errors.

"It felt pretty good," Muchova said postmatch. "I mean, you get nervous here and there when it's going — I don't want to say easy, but when the score is in your favor you have to be cautious."

The opening set lasted just 22 minutes. Muchova conceded only six points in the bagel set — two on serve and four on return, with Eala failing to reach game point until the third game of the second set.

The world No. 6 raced through the first 10 games without reply to lead 6-0, 4-0. A possibility of her first tour-level double bagel loomed before a wild drive volley enabled Eala to finally hold serve.

Muchova never faced a break point in the match, dropping only eight points total on her serve — two in the first set and six in the second.

The Czech international improved her 2026 season record to 16-3. Only five players have won more tour-level matches this year: Elina Svitolina, Elena Rybakina, Aryna Sabalenka, Jessica Pegula and Victoria Mboko.

She will face either No. 8 seed Mirra Andreeva or No. 10 seed Mboko in the quarterfinals. A matchup with Mboko would be a rematch of the Doha final, which Muchova won 6-4, 7-5.

Despite the loss, Alexandra Eala moved three spots up the WTA singles ranking after making it the Miami Open's Round of 16.

Czech tennis star Karolina Muchova is through to her third WTA 1000 final, ousting Greece's Maria Sakkari 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 on Friday to advance to the 2026 Qatar Open final in Doha.

Sakkari won five straight games to open the match with a 6-3, 2-0 lead. Muchova, however, stayed aggressive, responding with five straight victories of her own to go up 5-2 in the second set. Sakkari then closed the gap to 5-4, but the world No. 19 held for the set.

From there, Muchova took control, dominating the third set 6-1 before closing it out with an ace.

The win marked Muchova's 11th of the year and kept her perfect record against Sakkari intact with five wins and zero losses. It also sets up her first-ever meeting with Canadian rising talent Victoria Mboko, after the 19-year-old beat Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-2 to reach her second WTA 1000 final. The world No. 13 enters the final with 13 wins on the year, and will likely break into the WTA's Top 10 next week.

For Muchova, the Doha final marks another step in a strong 2026 season. The 29-year-old won her only WTA singles title at the 2019 Korea Open. A win Saturday would represent her first WTA 1000 title and push her to No. 11 in the WTA rankings.

Meanwhile, Sakkari heads to Dubai with a projected ranking of No. 33 — her best since March 2025.

How to watch Karolina Muchova at the 2026 Qatar Open

The 2026 Qatar Open final between Muchova and Mboko takes place Saturday, live on The Tennis Channel.

In her first-ever Grand Slam quarterfinal victory, No. 6-seed Jessica Pegula knocked No. 1 Iga Świątek​ out of the 2024 US Open in straight sets Wednesday night.

Now in uncharted territory, the US tennis star will aim at extending her historic run in tonight's semifinal against unseeded Czech opponent, Karolina Muchová.

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Quarterfinal victory proved Pegula's dominance

The 30-year-old Pegula, who has yet to drop a set all tournament, took control of yesterday's match immediately, winning the first game on Świątek's serve — the five-time Grand Slam winner's first broken serve in 26 games.

Świątek, the 2022 US Open champion, committed 18 unforced errors in the first set. Visibly frustrated with her performance, the Polish phenom retreated to the locker room to regroup — a move that ultimately proved unsuccessful in the wake of Pegula's relentless 6-2, 6-4 victory.

After six previous Grand Slam quarterfinal attempts, Pegula celebrated, telling the crowd post-match that "there have been so many freaking times, and I just kept losing.... So thank God I was able to do it. And finally — finally! — I can say, 'Semifinalist.'"

US tennis player Emma Navarro hits the ball in her 2024 US Open quarterfinal win
No. 13 Emma Navarro joins No. 6 Jessica Pegula as the two US players to make the 2024 US Open semis. (Robert Prange/Getty Images)

Two US contenders will feature in tonight's semis

Pegula isn't the only contender making her Grand Slam semifinal debut tonight. Before Pegula takes the court, fellow US player No. 13 Emma Navarro will take on reigning back-to-back Australian Open champion No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka.

Sabalenka, who fell to US star Coco Gauff in last year's US Open, hopes for better luck against Navarro — the player who ousted the No. 3 defending champ last weekend.

If both Pegula and Navarro emerge victorious, Saturday's US Open final would be the first contested by two US athletes since Sloane Stephens defeated Madison Keys for the 2017 title. It would also pit two New York locals against each other on their home Grand Slam court: Pegula hails from Buffalo, NY, while Navarro was born in NYC.

How to watch the 2024 US Open semifinals

Navarro and Sabalenka will kick off tonight's Grand Slam action at 7 PM ET, with Pegula's match against Muchová immediately following. Both semis will air on ESPN.

Coco Gauff has one regret that she may never be able to get over.

The 19-year-old made her first US Open final with a straight-sets win over Karolina Muchova, becoming the youngest American to reach the final at the Grand Slam since Serena Williams did it in 1999 at age 17. Williams went on to win the first of her 23 major singles titles.

So it seems a little bit like fate that, one year after Williams retired at the US Open, another American is following in her footsteps. Gauff became the first American teenager to reach the US Open semifinals since Williams in 2001.

And both Gauff and U.S. men’s player Ben Shelton, 20, have made more history. This year marked the first time multiple Americans aged 20 or younger have made it to the semifinals of the same Grand Slam since Venus and Serena Williams at Wimbledon in 2000.

Yet while some might see Gauff as the face and the future of American tennis, she is in excellent company. At this year’s US Open, multiple Americans have made deep runs — including 28-year-old Madison Keys, who lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the other semifinal.

“I don’t think I’m carrying American tennis. I don’t think I will,” Gauff told ESPN. “We have so many compatriots who are doing well.

“Serena is Serena. She’s the GOAT. I’d hope to do half of what she did. But I’m not gonna compare myself to her. She’s someone I look up to. Being in the same stat line as her means a lot to me. She’s my idol.”

Still, Gauff – who never once played against Williams professionally – has just one regret.

“The only regret I’ll have for the rest of my life is not being able to play her,” she said. “There were so many tournaments where if we won an extra round and didn’t lose, I would’ve played her. I’m still happy to just be a product of her legacy.”

World No. 1 Iga Swiatek won her third French Open title in four years on Saturday, defeating Karolina Muchova in three sets, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.

Swiatek now owns four Grand Slam titles: three from the French Open (2020, 2022, 2023), plus last year’s U.S. Open. The 22-year-old tennis star from Poland is the youngest woman to own four Grand Slam trophies since a 20-year-old Serena Williams accomplished the feat at the 2002 U.S. Open.

After winning the first set handily, Swiatek went up 3-0 in the second — but the unseeded Muchova fought back and scored a few truly remarkable points, including this one:

Despite Swiatek’s previous experience hoisting the French Open trophy, this year’s celebration came with a surprise when the lid of the cup toppled off mid-celebration.

Karolina Muchová has advanced to her first Grand Slam final after knocking off world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka at the French Open.

The semifinal saw a tight battle, as Muchová went up 7-6 (7-5) in the first set over Sabalenka, taking the tiebreak. It was Sabalenka’s first dropped set in the French Open.

But the 25-year-old Belarusian did not go quietly. The second set went also went to a tiebreak, but Sabalenka forced a third set with a 7-6 (7-5) win.

While Sabalenka surged to a 5-2 lead, Muchová fought back, saving a match point at 40-15, holding serve and breaking Sabalenka before winning three straight games and pulling even at 5-5. From there, Muchová took a 6-5 lead, and then went up 40-0 in the final game before winning the match 7-5.

“I don’t really know what happened, the atmosphere, the people are just pushing me all the matches,” Muchová said on the court after her win. “It’s unbelievable, I just try to keep fighting and it worked. I really don’t know what happened, I’m so happy.”

Sabalenka entered the match having won her last seven matches when losing the first set. The most recent of those came in the Australian Open final, which she won to take her first Grand Slam title.

Muchová is the first person to beat Sabalenka in a Grand Slam this year. The 26-year-old from Czech Republic will face No. 1 Iga Swiatek, who defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia in straight sets, 6-2, 7-6 (9-7), in the other semifinal.