No. 12 seed Karolina Muchova had a rough day at the officeas the Czech tennis star struggled in the Wuhan heat and missed out on several chances to close out the first set against Magdalena Frech before retiring from her second-round match.
Right out the gate, the No. 12 seed claimed a break in the very first game of the match. Across Frech's next two service games, the Czech had a chance to go up by a double break but missed out on three break points.
Leading 5-3, Muchova had a set point on Frech's serve - but failed to convert. Serving for the first set in the 10th game, the Czech faced break points for the first time in the match and got broken back.
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Still, it looked like Muchova was going to take the first set after breaking Frech in the 11th game to go 6-5 up. But once again, the No. 12 seed failed to serve out for the opening set.
From that moment on, it was a complete struggle for the Czech as Frech dominated the first set tie-break and won it with a 7-1 scoreline.
Muchova asked for a medical timeout, retired shortly after
After dropping the first set in a heartbreaking way, the 12th-seeded Czech also got broken early in the second set and trailed 2-1 when she was visited by the physio and had her vitals checked.
When the match resumed, Muchova also lost the next two games. With Frech leading 7-6 (1) 4-1, the Czech retired from the match.
