Karolina Muchova returns to Wimbledon without the old expectations after wrist surgery

WIMBLEDON, England — Karolina Muchova was certain she would one day be back on the tennis tour, and one day at a Grand Slam tournament again, no matter how long it took after surgery on her right wrist. Well, mostly sure.

Except, of course, when in the 10 months she was away, the doubts she tried to ignore would creep into the subconscious of someone who finished runner-up at the 2023 French Open to Iga Swiatek and reached the US semi-finals. Open before losing to eventual champion Coco Gauff in New York in a match interrupted by a climate protest.

“Of course it was a little bit in my head. You don’t know, right? Whatever surgery it is, you never know what’s going to happen. Are you ever going to play again or not?” Muchova said in an interview at Wimbledon, where she will face Paula Badosa on Court 17 in the first round on Monday in a duel between two women who are both in the WTA top 10. “So I tried not to think about it but somewhere deep in my head it was there.”

Muchova is a 27-year-old from the Czech Republic who was in the middle of the best season of her career when she injured her racket-wielding arm. She wore a black sleeve during her match against Gauff on September 7, reached a career-high ranking four days later and then did not play another match until last week’s lawn tune-up event in Eastbourne.

The surgery — her first as a pro, Muchova said — took place in February. She only picked up a racket again about two months ago.

“A wrist is a delicate thing for a tennis player. So I was definitely a little bit worried about it,” Muchova said. “You just have to trust the surgeon.”

All in all, it has been quite a daunting process for a player with a varied game across all grounds who reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open in 2021 and was a quarter-finalist at the All England Club in 2019 and 2021, before last year’s successes.

“I’ve always enjoyed how she plays. I think she can play great tennis on all surfaces, with her quite clean technique and the fact that she can play topspin, but also slices. Sometimes she can really change the rhythm on the court. So it’s nice to have her back,” said Swiatek, a five-time major champion who is ranked No. 1 at Wimbledon. “I just hope she’s healthy because she seems like a player who really enjoys herself on the court. If she’s … pain-free and injury-free, she can really play great tennis.”

Muchova eventually withdrew from the quarterfinals in Eastbourne because her wrist felt stiff after a win there; her doctor advised her to rest. But after a few days off, Muchova said she was fine and planned to play Badosa.

Here’s what’s different for Muchova now: she doesn’t feel even a little pressure to perform. Not right away, anyway.

“My mentality is definitely: now I have zero expectations. I am very happy to be back on the tour,” Muchova said. “I think I can get back to my level. I still feel like I can be even better than before. You can always learn, even from bad things like an injury or an operation. I hope to come back as a better player. But I can’t just go back to where I was 10 months (ago). I have to take it easy and be gentle with myself.”

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Howard Fendrich has been AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich