No. 26 seed Nikola Bartunkova booked her place in the first WTA 1000 semifinal of her career in fine style on Thursday, needing just 67 minutes to defeat No. 7 seed Karolina Muchova 6-3, 6-0 at the China Open.<\/p>\n
In an inter-generational clash between Czech compatriots who train at the same \u0160tvanice club in Prague, the 20-year-old Bartunkova dominated proceedings by winning both the first five and the last seven games of the match against her 30-year-old countrywoman. The result was her third career Top 10 win, following her upsets of Belinda Bencic at the Australian Open and Aryna Sabalenka in the third round here. She advances to her third tour-level semifinal, following Guadalajara 2025 and Monterrey 2026, and first at WTA 1000 level.<\/p>\n
Bartunkova, who ended 2025 ranked No. 130 and has climbed to No. 34 this week, will make her Top 30 debut following Beijing. She will bid to reach her first career final against either No. 4 seed Mirra Andreeva or No. 19 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.<\/p>\n
Despite her steep upwards trajectory in 2026, Bartunkova’s run in Beijing has taken her by surprise.<\/p>\n
“For sure [I didn’t expect it] before this tournament,” she said in her press conference. “I played lot of practices with top players — [iga] Swiatek, [Coco] Gauff, others. Maybe it helps little bit. [It] was one week before the tournament. I tried to play a lot of practices, lot of matches. I think that was the reason I had good preparation for this tournament. So yeah, I had confidence. But honestly I didn’t expect these results.”<\/p>\n
How did Bartunkova pull off the upset?<\/p>\n
As Bartunkova has risen through the ranks this year, her swashbuckling blend of power and finesse has repeatedly drawn comparisons to one top player — Muchova herself. The question ahead of their first meeting was whether Muchova’s greater experience would help her to deploy that style more effectively — particularly in the most consistent season of her career in which she has collected two titles (Doha and Bad Homburg), as well as reaching a second major final at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n
“I follow her a lot,” said Bartunkova about Muchova. “I have also similar style like her, playing lot of drop shots, volleys. I like her because she’s also a great human being.”<\/p>\n
Off court, there was respect; on court, Bartunkova simply didn’t permit Muchova to get her game going. The younger player has every shot in the book, and a first-strike mentality to use them as quickly as possible in the point. She broke in the second game with four consecutive returns fired deep at Muchova’s feet, drawing an error each time. In the fourth game, she used her drop shot as an audacious plus-one winner en route to breaking again.<\/p>\n
The drop shot was also the setup for Bartunkova’s two best points of the match — a stretch backhand volley as she moved up 4-0 in the first set, and a perfect volleyed lob at the same stage of the second.<\/p>\n
Intent on being the first to break open each point, Bartunkova did not let herself get drawn into extended rallies and within 20 minutes led 5-0.<\/p>\n
“Today I was really aggressive,” she said. “I [wasn’t] very nervous. Yeah, try to put my best tennis. I did it.”<\/p>\n
What were Muchova’s best chances to turn the match around?<\/p>\n
At 5-0 in the first set, Bartunkova was in such complete command that she even pulled off an absurd backhand slice winner that caught Muchova off guard yet again. But a handful of forehand errors allowed Muchova to get on the board, and closing out the set proved a tricky task.<\/p>\n
Bartunkova has squandered a number of significant leads this summer — 6-2, 4-0 against Sabalenka in Berlin; 5-1 in the third set and four match points against Lanlana Tararudee in Prague; 4-2 in the third set against Amanda Anisimova in Toronto; 6-1, 3-0 against Elise Mertens in Monterrey. Surely aware of that pattern, Muchova played her most aggressive tennis to claw back three games and fend off five set points.<\/p>\n
But the gulf was too much to make up — and, as Bartunkova said, her nerves didn’t come into play. Up a sixth set point, Muchova offered up a drop shot that landed closer to the service line than the net, and Bartunkova stayed calm to swat it away for a winner.<\/p>\n
There were no similar chances in the second set. Bartunkova leapt out to an early lead again and this time didn’t let up, tallying 19 winners to Muchova’s 12. Muchova faded in the home stretch as her unforced error count reached 37.<\/p>\n
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