ALL INCREDIBLE things must come to an end, and that was the case overnight as world number two Aryna Sabalenka‘s 15-game winning streak was brought to an abrupt end at the hands of Karolina Muchova. The Czech talent needed a massive two hours and 46 minutes before finally getting past the top seed in the China Open quarter finals.

Muchova is widely regarded as a dangerous player who can hurt opponents in a variety of ways. Though at times her body has let her down, Muchova was at her brilliant best against Sabalenka. She closed out the first set in a nail-biting tiebreaker, then bounced back from a disappointing second set to come away with the 7-6 2-6 6-4 victory in just under three hours.

Muchova won the pair’s last two encounters at Cincinnati and Roland Garros, both semi-finals last year. Since losing a Toronto quarter final match at the start of August, Sabalenka had won 15 straight matches, including titles at both Cincinnati Masters and the US Open, reaffirming her place as the world’s best hardcourter.

However that fact mattered little to Muchova who went about dismantling the Belarusian star as she has so many others before her. Even when she was in trouble at 2-4 down in the third set, the Czech found a way to claw back into the contest. She won the last four games of the match, including the last 10 points to take out the contest and and book her spot in the Beijing semi-finals.

“Very tough match, basically what I expected,” Muchova said post-match. “She’s one of the best players playing her best tennis these days. You really have to be ready to attack, because if you slice slow ball or something she’s really going to smash you.

“Second set I fell a little short. I felt a little down and she was just smashing it. I just tried to get through the second set, tried to regroup. Third set, I was just trying to fight for every ball. We’ve had some close battles, so I was trying to put every ball over the net and it was worth it in the end.”

“I played her twice last year, and it’s definitely been a year of improvement. She drop shots, she’s better at net. There were some great shots she played. I think she’s moving better. I could see that she improved, and I was just trying to keep up. But I think I improved as well. Somehow I was feeling pretty good on court. Of course, I still need to work on my fitness, I didn’t have much time to work on it this year.”

Muchova will now go on to face Qinwen Zheng in the semi-finals after the local hope overcame a determined Mirra Andreeva. The young Russian was a set up before Zheng ended up bagelling her opponent in the second set. Andreeva kept coming to go a break up at 4-2 in the third, only for Zheng to close out the match with the last four games and win, 5-7 6-0 6-4.