Semi-final! Karolina Muchova impresses in Linz

The Upper Austria Ladies Linz has a new crowd favourite! Czech Grand Slam finalist Karolina Muchova reached the semi-finals at her first appearance at the women's tennis classic in Linz. Muchova defeated Anastasia Potapova 6:3, 3:6, 6:3 in a high-class quarter-final in front of 2500 tennis fans in the sold-out Linz Design Centre. The eagerly awaited duel between the tournament's number one (Muchova) and the 2023 winner (Potapova) lived up to its promise in every respect. While Muchova impressed with her variable attacking tennis, Potapova relied on a portion of extra power from the baseline, but ultimately failed to capitalise on her chances. She was only able to capitalise on one of her twelve break chances and, after a strong comeback in the second set, rarely found the necessary balance in her game at the important moments in the deciding set. Muchova converted her second match point after 2:10 hours.

"That was a very tough match. She played brilliantly. The last game in particular was extremely close. I really wanted to win the match and I'm glad that I managed to do so. It's great that so many Czech fans are here. But the Austrians always support me too. It's a lot of fun," summarised the winner, who also proved to the crowd that she had learnt her first words of German this week.

Muchova will now face Linz favourite Ekaterina Alexandrova in the semi-finals on Saturday (not before 3 pm). However, the two-time finalist of the Upper Austria Ladies Linz (2018 and 2024) had to cope with a false start against Petra Martic, but still deserved to win in three sets 3:6, 6:2, 6:3 and advance to the semi-finals of her favourite tournament for the fifth time. "It was difficult to get into the match against Petra today because she has so many good shots. But it got better from the second set onwards. I don't know why things always go so well here in Linz. I just feel really comfortable here and the fans support me every year," said Alexandrova after her late shift on Friday evening.

Yastremska defeats Sakkari
Maria Sakkari missed out on her second semi-final appearance in Upper Austria since 2023 at the start of the quarter-final day in Linz. After 80 minutes, the Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska prevailed 7:5 and 6:0. The hard-fought first round, in which Yastremska was the slightly more consistent player, was the decisive factor in the match. "The atmosphere was great, there are always a lot of Ukrainian fans here. It's a beautiful hall. I can actually enjoy it a bit, even if you can't always tell," said Yastremska after her first win over a top 50 player since June last year.

On Saturday (2 pm), she will play Clara Tauson in her first semi-final since the Australian Open 2024. The Dane is currently impressively confirming her good form at the start of the new tennis year in Linz. Just like Dayana Yastremska, she did not lose a set on her way to the semi-finals and won 6:4, 6:3 against Anna Blinkova, who had beaten Elina Svitolina the day before. For the Scandinavian, who served nine aces in the quarter-finals alone, it is already the second semi-final in 2025. In Auckland, New Zealand, she celebrated the third tournament win of her career. "We both played really good tennis, but I played very bravely in the decisive moments. I just love playing indoors. We only do that in Denmark and we don't get the chance to do it so often on the tour. I love the atmosphere here," explains the Scandinavian.

Wheelchair tennis show practice on Saturday
Christina Pesendorfer and Nico Langmann, the respective number one in wheelchair tennis in Austria, will be guests at the WTA 500 tournament at the Linz Design Center on the semi-final day and will play a show practice on centre court before the first semi-final from 12.30 pm. Both will be equipped with headset microphones for this match and will commentate live for the tennis fans. After the first and second semi-finals, anyone interested will be able to try their hand at wheelchair tennis on Match Court 1.