US OPEN

September 3, 2025

Karolina Muchova

Press Conference

N. OSAKA/K. Muchova

6-4, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Obviously not the result you wanted, but you had a great tournament. Your thoughts on tonight's match?

KAROLINA MUCHOVA: My thoughts... well, it was a very, very tough match. I think Naomi played really well, especially in the key moments. We had some close games that could go either way, but on her serve, she usually served pretty well.

Yeah, tough battle.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Just curious about the thigh injury you had and when it started to hurt, and how you were feeling on the court?

KAROLINA MUCHOVA: I honestly don't know. I think it was, like, third game or third or fifth. I just stepped like little wrong with ugly move. I don't know what it is. I think it's just something with the muscle that's hopefully not going to take me long to heal.

But, yeah, it limited me a little bit on the court, but I played pretty long matches here. That for sure didn't help me, yeah.

Q. Despite that, I thought it was a high-quality match and really competitive. Are you proud of how you were able to kind of, you know, stay tight to her and give yourself opportunities despite that?

KAROLINA MUCHOVA: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I mean, both sets, especially the second set, I could serve it out. I didn't play that game well. On the other hand, she did.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with the way I competed, even with the leg and all that. Yeah, I could go to third, but yeah, overall the whole tournament was pretty good in all form. I came here and I didn't feel so great, but with the way I fought and all that, I'm pretty glad about that.

Q. I just wanted to ask you, you've played Naomi last year here and in Australia and here again tonight. How different has her level been? Have you seen progress in her? Because obviously this is a big result for her at this tournament after a couple of years of not getting it clicking like this.

KAROLINA MUCHOVA: Yeah. Well, I think she played great even before, even last year in Australia and here as well. I think maybe the change would be in the confidence.

I think she played some great -- she played great in Montreal, got some good matches under her belt, winning matches. I think that's the biggest difference, I would say, the confidence. You can see that she believes in her shots more, and yeah, in the key points she plays well. I would say that's probably different. But even in those matches before, she was always, like, tough competitor, and it was tough to play her every time.

Q. I feel you were trying to do some volley and come to the net quite often. Of course it's always your option and your style, but did you want to make the points short because of your physical condition or fatigue or something?

KAROLINA MUCHOVA: If I wanted to do that more?

Q. Make the point short.

KAROLINA MUCHOVA: Oh, short. Yeah, I tried to -- I tried to play even more aggressive on the returns and tried to make the rally a little bit shorter to I didn't have to run that much. So, yeah, for sure.

Q. Was it your physical condition, or it's more just like tactics against Naomi?

KAROLINA MUCHOVA: I think it's my game. I always try to approach the net and play aggressive. But, yeah, then I just try to keep the points a little bit shorter.