Karolína to Start Australian Open against Fellow Czech Muchová

Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the year, is starting and Karolína learned her opponent’s name with a slight delay. She was drawn to face a qualifier and only on Friday it was clear that the first round will see a Czech battle. Karolína will play against the twenty-two-year-old fellow Czech Karolína Muchová.

Muchová, who currently sits on 141st place in the WTA ranking, quite clearly advanced from the qualification after beating Arina Rodionova of Australia, Ludmila Samsonova of Russia, as well as Jamie Loeb of the United States in straight sets. Karolína will encounter Muchová for the first time in her career. The match is scheduled to be played on Monday, 14th January.

Karolína will enter the Australian Open as a winner of this year’s tournament in Brisbane. Following her triumph she moved up to the seventh place in the WTA ranking. And in Melbourne she is seeded as No. 7.

After winning in Brisbane, Queensland Karolína changed her original plans. She was registered for the tournament in Sydney and ironically she was supposed to play against her final opponent from Brisbane, Lesia Tsurenko. But just like the Ukrainian, Karolína sent an excuse to the tournament organizers due to her busy program and started practicing in Melbourne from Monday already. Karolína’s manager and husband, Michal Hrdlička, left for the venue of the Australian Open too, so the Czech number one’s team should be complete at the first Grand Slam.

Year by year, Karolína has been improving at the Australian Open. For the first time she tried her luck in Melbourne in 2011, but failed to qualify for the main competition. A year later she finished in the same stage. In 2013 she played in the main competition for the first time, but was eliminated in the first round. In 2014 she won her first main competition match at the Australian Grand Slam. In 2015 and 2016 she reached the third round. During her last two Australian Open campaigns in 2017 and 2018 she already advanced to the quarterfinals. This year she will play in the main competition for the seventh time already.

Karolína’s Australian Open results:

2013
1st round: Eleni Daniilidou (GRE) 7-5, 5-7, 6-4

2014
1st round: Pauline Parmentier (FRA) 6-0, 6-1
2nd round: Daniela Hantuchová (31-SVK) 3-6, 6-3, 10-12

2015
1st round: Evgeniya Rodina (Q-RUS) 7-5, 6-1
2nd round: Oceane Dodin (FRA) 7-5, 5-7, 6-4
3rd round: Ekaterina Makarova (10-RUS) 4-6, 4-6

2016
1st round: Kimberly Birrell (AUS) 6-4, 6-4
2nd round: Julia Goerges (GER) 7-6(5), 6-1
3rd round: Ekaterina Makarova (21-RUS) 3-6, 2-6

2017
1st round: Sara Sorribes Tormo (ESP) 6-2, 6-0
2nd round: Anna Blinkova (Q-RUS) 6-0, 6-2
3rd round: Jelena Ostapenko (LAT) 4-6, 6-0, 10-8
R16: Daria Gavrilova (22-AUS) 6-3, 6-3
QF: Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO) 4-6, 6-3, 4-6

2018
1st round: Veronica Cepede Royg (PAR) 6-3, 6-4
2nd round: Beatriz Haddad Maia (BRA) 6-1, 6-1
3rd round: Lucie Šafářová (29-CZE) 7-6(6), 7-5
R16: Barbora Strýcová (20-CZE) 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2
QF: Simona Halep (1-ROU) 3-6, 2-6

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