Gauff Crushes Muchova, Cruises Into Maiden Miami Final

By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, March 26, 2026
Photo credit: Miami Open Facebook

An open expanse of court greeted her, but Karolina Muchova’s mind, muddled by Coco Gauff’s unrelenting defense, made the wrong choice.

Muchova tried hitting her smash behind the American only to see Gauff hold her ground and zap a backhand pass down the line.

Even when Muchova was on the attack, Gauff sometimes turned her drives into punch line passes.

Gauff dropped serve to start then surged through 10 games in a row crushing Muchova 6-1, 6-1, to roll into her maiden Miami Open final.

The Delray Beach-born Gauff scored a milestone victory in her home tournament.

The 22-year-old Gauff is the youngest American woman to reach the Miami Open final since Serena in 2003 and will surpass Iga Swiatek as the new world No. 3 when the new WTA rankings are released on Monday.

Reigning Roland Garros champion Gauff will play either world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, in what would be a rematch of the 2025 French Open final, or Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina in Saturday’s final.

The fourth-ranked Gauff, who has gone the distance in four of her five tournament wins, has split 12 career meetings vs. reigning champion Sabalenka, who is aiming to become the fifth woman to complete the Sunshine Double.

In their lone prior meeting, Gauff edged Rybakina 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 at the 2022 Toronto.

A simple game-plan carried Gauff to her sixth win over Muchova in as many meetings. Gauff mixed high, heavy topspin forehands down the line with crackling crosscourt backhands. Muchova never quite found her range or rhythm, committing 36 unforced errors in the match.

Gauff launched a 115 mph ace that helped her issue a love hold for 4-1 after 31 minutes of play.

After dropping the opening game of the match, Gauff charged through six straight games serving out the 41-minute opener at love.

The reigning Roland Garros champion dropped serve at 15 in the opening game. Gauff reeled off 13 points in a row on serve to close the set.

An out of sorts Muchova still hadn’t held serve and was struggling for net clearance. Muchova put a pair of shots into net as Gauff broke again—her seventh straight game—to start the second set.

Rarely does Muchova show much negative emotion on court, but the cumulative effect of so many miscues finally forced frustration to erupt. When Muchova sailed a forehand well long she flung her Head racquet to the court. Gauff withstood turbulence holding for 2-0.

Still, Muchova could not find the range on her forehand. 

The 14th-ranked Czech scattered forehand as Gauff scored her fifth straight break, snatching her ninth game in a row to extend to 6-1, 3-0.

Seventy-eight minutes into the match, Muchova tamed her baseline drives to hold for the first time, snapping a 10-game spiral, for 1-4.

Gauff will carry a 16-5 record in 2026 into Saturday’s final as she plays for her 12th career championship.

It is Gauff’s first pro tournament wearing a black baseball cap though even if she goes on to take the title on Sunday, Gauff said her baseball cap tournaments are likely “one and done” and shared she “hates it.”

Gauff aims to put a lid on her dream and win the tournament she says is most important outside of the four Grand Slams.