Is it possible to play so many hot shots that they become routine -- unmemorable, even?
Apparently so for Karolina Muchova. With her second-round match against Katie Boulter at the China Open poised at 3-3 in the first-set tiebreak, the Czech came up with some dizzying wizardry -- a full 360-degree spinning pickup, then a finely angled pass at full stretch past the flailing Briton.
It wasn't just a sensational piece of athletic artistry, but the key point of the match. It effectively ended Boulter's impact on the contest -- Muchova did not drop another point in the tiebreak, then ran away with the second set for a 7-6(3), 6-1 victory. Most players would be dining out on it for weeks, if not years, to come.
But asked about it afterwards, the two-time major finalist had no idea what reporters were talking about. "My spin shot?" she asked, quizzically. She had to be shown a clip of it to jog her memory.
Once Muchova was watching it back, though, she was able to explain how she pulled it off -- as much as one can explain genius in mere human language, at any rate.
"[I feel I'm] quite well under, like on my feet," she recalled. "I feel like this was the only way to kind of pick it up. It went naturally because I had it behind my body, so my body went that way. It's not that I was thinking about it ahead. I would rather hit nice easy backhand volley, but this was out of it. I'm happy that I managed to win that shot."
It's simple -- and maybe even forgettable -- when you put it like that. But most importantly, there'll be the chance to see what else Muchova can come up with in Beijing: the No. 7 seed has advanced to face No. 29 seed Liudmila Samsonova in the third round.
