Muchova returns to her happy place rested and ready to build on 2024 success

SYDNEY -- Karolina Muchova knows how she'll ring in the new year, but the countdown to midnight remains a bit of a question mark. The 28-year-old Czech is set to play World No.2 Iga Swiatek on New Year's Day in a high-stakes showdown at the United Cup, a challenge that Muchova is excited to take on. 

"It's such a shame that we play after New Year's Eve," Muchova told WTA Insider. "We play in the morning. I'm like, what? 

"Everyone says the Sydney fireworks is so good. It's a tricky one, so I'll see what I do."

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When a Sydney-born WTA communications director tells Muchova that there will be a fireworks show at Sydney Harbor at the more family-friendly time of 9 p.m., her face lights up. 

Maybe, just maybe, 2025 is the year Muchova's luck turns around.

Not that Muchova is getting ahead of herself. "I think I'm too much of, like, if I say something, it may not happen," Muchova said when asked about her goals for the new season. "So I better keep it low-key. 

"Keep healthy and consistent and work on my game. If these three things will work and I gain some matches and confidence, then hand-in-hand, you can do great results. Of course, in the past I played semis and one final of a Slam, so would be great to get back to these results. But you never know and I'll just try to quietly work and hopefully, it can happen again." 

The last time Muchova was able to play a full season on the Hologic WTA Tour was five years ago in 2019. She had yet to break into the Top 100 and she proceeded to show just how disruptive her aggressive all-court game could be on tour.

That season, she made her first final in Prague, stunned her compatriot and then-No.3 Karolina Pliskova en route to the Wimbledon quarterfinals and won her first and only title to date in Seoul. 

But injuries have interrupted every season since. After undergoing wrist surgery last year, Muchova returned to competition during the grass season in July. Healthy again, it did not take long for her to weave her disruptive web. In just her third tournament back she was into a final, on the clay in Palermo, where she lost in three tough sets to Zheng Qinwen. 

Then, back on her favored hard courts, she finished the year with a flourish, winning 14 of her last 17 matches, a run that included a return to the US Open semifinals, a second WTA 1000 final in Beijing and the semifinals in Ningbo, where she was forced to retire due to injury.

"It meant a lot that I finished the season consistent," Muchova said. "It was not just like a, as we call it, one scream and a silence. So really happy that I could keep the level going. I was playing well. I was feeling fine. I still feel like I need to play matches and go through it to gain that tennis physique. But I'm able to do that so far now so I'm just happy about it. 

"Beijing and Ningbo, I felt great on the court, I felt confident. I felt I was kind of getting back to my game and gaining the tennis confidence and the stroke confidence. But now is the new season, so you never know how you're going to start. But I'd be very happy to just keep on going and get back with this and then build to my game." 

Even with that flurry of matches, Muchova says she feels rested and ready to go for the new season. She certainly looked the part on Sunday, when she opened her 2025 season with a clinical straight-sets win over Norway's Malene Helgø.

"I would say I recovered fine," Muchova said. "Obviously it would be nice to take two weeks of vacation somewhere far away. That was not my case because I was still trying to keep warm and busy [to be ready for Billie Jean King Cup].

"I look forward to these next six months that I didn't play last year. So now it's the tournaments that I haven't been to last year. So I really look forward to being here in Australia and then California and Miami. I just miss these places."

Australia is full of happy memories for Muchova. It is where she posted her first win over a reigning World No.1, defeating Ashleigh Barty in 2021 to make her first Grand Slam semifinal. With the United Cup's format and a chance to cross Sydney off her travel list, Muchova jumped at the chance to play in the team competition. 

"I asked a few players who played it and all of them told me it's so great," Muchova said. "It's so nice to be with a team. We have guaranteed two matches, which is, as well, why I chose to come here. Especially playing Norway and Poland, which are such good quality matches before heading to Melbourne."