Nikola Bartunkova reached the semifinals of a WTA 1000 event for the first time on Thursday, October 8. At the China Open in Beijing, the Czech defeated compatriot Karolina Muchova 6–3, 6–0 in 67 minutes.
Muchova’s response stops in the opening set
Bartunkova raced into a 5–0 lead before Muchova won three games to extend the contest. That change of momentum proved brief: the younger player closed out the set and swept the second. She finished the match with seven consecutive games.
The WTA match statistics show how the gap developed. Bartunkova struck 19 winners and made 15 unforced errors, compared with Muchova’s 12 and 37. She won 63% of the points played, combining attacking output with a substantially lower error count.
A new milestone in Beijing
At 20, Bartunkova has reached her third tour-level semifinal, following Guadalajara in 2025 and Monterrey in 2026. The WTA also confirmed that she will enter the Top 30 for the first time after the tournament.
Muchova’s run ends in the quarterfinals. She had beaten Katie Boulter, Liudmila Samsonova and Naomi Osaka to get there, needing three sets in each of the previous two rounds. This time, her opening-set recovery did not change the outcome.
The official WTA highlights feature the points from Thursday’s all-Czech quarterfinal.
