Muchová, the 29-year-old No. 10 seed, appears to be a natural grass-court player, given her versatility, slice, prowess at net and mid-point creativity.
Watching Muchová when she’s in the zone is sublime, but counter to her innate abilities, she hasn’t often gotten the chance to show her best work on grass.
She shared the same frustrating history at Wimbledon as her opponent Thursday, who is considered the opposite of a grass-court savant.
The only problem for Gauff in Thursday’s semifinal was that her power was going against placement and accuracy.
Muchová had served the second-most aces of the tournament with 36, just behind Naomi Osaka’s 37, and was winning 79 percent of points off her first serve.
That scoreboard pressure figured to be a problem for Gauff, who started Thursday’s semifinal trying to force her way into games on the ground — and a shaky start serving didn’t help.
After dominating a set apiece, the third essentially went by in a flash, tightening as Muchová made the kind of mistakes she often does against Gauff, going for the wrong choices in promising situations because of her opponent’s defense.
But in the tiebreak, she found her attacking range — and her route into a final that her game always suggested it might deliver.
