NEW YORK – Karolina Muchova is in the semifinals of the U.S. Open for the second year in a row, capping her return from wrist surgery with a 6-1, 6-4 win over No. 22 Beatriz Haddad Maia on Wednesday.

Muchova lost to eventual winner Coco Gauff in the 2023 semifinals at Flushing Meadows and then missed nearly 10 months due to a wrist injury she sustained during the tournament.

The Czech returned to action in June, just before Wimbledon, and just over two months later she is in her fourth Grand Slam semifinal.

Muchova will face top seed Iga Swiatek or No. 6 Jessica Pegula in the semifinals on Thursday.

Muchova dominated the first set, quickly building a 5-0 lead and closing it out in 35 minutes. Then the second set became a challenge as both players struggled physically on a sunny afternoon.

Muchova, clutching her hip, left the court at one point to go to the bathroom, as she said, while Haddad Maia appeared to point to her chest mid-set and tried to take a deep breath before burying her head in a towel while coaches attended to her.

“A bit of a weird match, I must say,” Muchova said in her on-court interview. “I had a few problems, I don’t really want to say anything if everything is OK. But I’m glad I managed to run to the toilet and back. Sorry if it bothered anyone, but I had no other choice.”

Muchova had to get used to dealing with pain.

She had just reached her second major semifinal of 2023 after losing to Swiatek in the French Open final when she was forced to stop playing after the US Open. When she finally returned to the tour this year, she only had 11 matches left before returning to Flushing Meadows.

That was enough time for Muchova to rediscover her game. She didn’t drop a set in her five matches and finished this one with an ace in the middle.

Many fans had not even taken their seats at Arthur Ashe Stadium when Muchova defeated Haddad Maia in a 14-point game to take a 2-0 lead. The Brazilian was down the same amount in her third-round match against Anna Kalinskaya but won the next game to turn things around, helped by a video review that earned her a point.

The US Tennis Association acknowledged the next day that Haddad Maia’s shot was illegal, but the umpire was not shown the replay that would have proved this.

Muchova did not allow a turnaround this time and prevented Haddad Maia – the first Brazilian since Maria Bueno in 1968 to reach the quarterfinals of the US Open – from reaching the second important semifinal of her career.

Haddad Maia confirmed during her post-match press conference that she had some problems with her chest during the game but feels OK

“Today I didn’t play my best tennis,” said Haddad Maia. “She deserved the win. I myself didn’t play at the level I played at in the last matches, so I’m very unhappy.”

“But I also learned a lot. I’m taking a lot of positive things away from this week.”

Muchova is the 19th unseeded woman in the Open Era to reach the semifinals in New York and only the fifth to do so without dropping a set, joining Mima Jausovec (1976), Flavia Pennetta (2013), Peng Shuai (2014) and qualifier Emma Raducanu, who won the title in 2021.

ESPN Stats & Information, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.