Muchova bests Sorribes Tormo in Linz; Blinkova upsets Svitolina

Karolina Muchova

View Profile was in full flow as she opened her Upper Austria Ladies Linz campaign with a 6-2, 6-3 second-round win over qualifier Sara Sorribes Tormo

View Profile .

Linz: Scores | Draws | Order of play

The Czech has become renowned for her crowd-pleasing hot shots over the past few seasons, which have seen her deliver multiple deep runs on the big stage: her first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros 2023, a pair of US Open semifinals in 2023 and 2024, and two WTA 1000 finals at Cincinnati 2023 and Beijing 2024.

But frequent injury breaks have also meant that Muchova's title drought now stretches back over half a decade since lifting her only Hologic WTA Tour trophy at Seoul 2019. As the No.1 seed in Linz this week, the 28-year-old is bidding to snap it by taking her first WTA 500 title.

A solid win over a tricky opponent was an encouraging start. Sorribes Tormo had beaten Muchova in both of their previous meetings, but Muchova did not allow the Spaniard to turn this encounter into a war of attrition. Swarming the net whenever possible and getting big first strikes in early, Muchova tallied 36 winners -- including five aces -- to 29 unforced errors.

Sorribes Tormo's winner total was a mere seven, though the World No.99 showed she could match Muchova's finesse when she wanted -- in particular, two finely angled passing shots had the crowd gasping.

Muchova's only stumble came towards the end, as she nearly let a 4-1 second-set lead slip amid some careless errors -- but she was able to laugh about it after regaining her focus.

"I think you saw some silly shots," Muchova told Barbara Schett in her on-court interview.  "Sometimes it's too many options. I'm trying to work on it to pick the right shots. It's fun, but sometimes ... Hopefully no one saw what I just did!"

Muchova will face No.6 seed and 2023 champion Anastasia Potapova

View Profile in the quarterfinals.

Elsewhere, Anna Blinkova

View Profile dealt out the biggest upset of the tournament to date, defeating No.2 seed Elina Svitolina

View Profile 6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour and 37 minutes. In a match filled with intense, high-octane baseline exchanges and 12 breaks of serve in total, Svitolina paid the price for landing only 53% of her first serves, and winning just 32% of her second serve points.

Svitolina threatened a comeback when she found a phenomenal forehand winner to break Blinkova as the World No.83 served for the match, but was unable to maintain the same quality in the subsequent game. The result was Blinkova's first win over Svitolina in three meetings, and put her into her first tour-level quarterfinal since Bad Homburg last June. She will face No.8 seed Clara Tauson

View Profile in the last eight.

Elsewhere, qualifier Petra Martic

View Profile upset No.7 seed Elina Avanesyan

View Profile 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 in a 2-hour, 49-minute barnburner to notch her first Top 50 win in 11 months. No.5 seed Dayana Yastremska

View Profile also advanced, coming from 4-2 down in the first set to defeat qualifier Antonia Ruzic

View Profile 7-5, 6-1. The Ukrainian will face No.3 seed Maria Sakkari

View Profile in the quarterfinals.