Muchova enjoyed the best season of her career last year before a wrist injury sidelined her for 10 months, but she looked back to her best at Arthur Ashe Stadium as she set up a third round meeting with unseeded Russian Anastasia Potapova.

Four-times major winner Osaka of Japan, who missed last year’s tournament while on a maternity break, was brilliant in her opening round win over 10th seed Jelena Ostapenko but a handful of costly mistakes sunk her chances against Muchova.

The two big servers were deadlocked early in the match before Muchova converted a break point when she forced Osaka into a backhand error in the seventh game, and the former world No 1 dropped serve again in the ninth.

Osaka broke Muchova with a powerful forehand into the corner in the ninth game of the second set and had the momentum as she went up 40-0 in the 10th.

But she let the match slip through her fingers as her forehand began to malfunction and the former world No 1 threw her racquet in disgust as she sent one long on the second break point, before Muchova battled through in the tiebreak.