Doctors told Karolina Muchova not to play tennis, but now she is in French Open final

Karolina Muchova saved a match point and battled back from 2-5 down in the final set to shock world number two Aryna Sabalenka and reach her maiden Grand Slam final at the French Open on Thursday inspired by being told by doctors "not to do sport anymore".

Muchova, ranked at 43, defeated the Australian Open winner 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (5/7), 7-5 in a thrilling three-hour 13-minute match and will face defending champion Iga Swiatek in Saturday's final.

Unheralded Czech player Muchova, a former top 20 player, has been plagued by a succession of injuries in her career.

An abdominal problem sidelined her for seven months in 2021 while she ended last year's French Open in a wheelchair after suffering an ankle injury.

Only last September, her ranking was outside the top 200.

"I missed the Australian Open last year, and I was in a pretty bad state health-wise, I was working out a lot to try to get back," said Muchova who had been a semifinalist in Melbourne in 2021.

"Some doctors told me, maybe you'll not do sport anymore. But I always kept it kind of positive in my mind and tried to work and do all the exercises to be able to come back.

"Last year, when my ranking dropped, I wanted to feel motivated to play to get back, but I couldn't somehow."

However, her confidence was restored by quarterfinal runs in Auckland, Dubai and Indian Wells.

"I was feeling pretty fine health-wise. It's up-and-downs in life all the time. Now I'm enjoying that I'm on the upper part now."

The 26-year-old Muchova added Sabalenka to an impressive list of victims in Paris which included eighth seed Maria Sakkari in the first round and 2021 runner-up Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarterfinal.

For Sabalenka, defeat ended her run of 12 successive match wins at the Slams as she paid a heavy price for 53 unforced errors while the versatile Muchova saved nine of 13 break points.