Linda Noskova secured her place in her first Grand Slam final with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Marta Kostyuk at Wimbledon, extending a remarkable Czech tradition at the All England Club. Whoever wins the title this year, it will mark the third time in four years that a Czech woman has lifted the Venus Rosewater Dish, following Marketa Vondrousova in 2023 and Barbora Krejcikova in 2024.
Czech Success at Wimbledon: A Tradition
Before them, Petra Kvitova won the title in 2011 and 2014, the late Jana Novotna triumphed in 1998, and grass-court queen Martina Navratilova claimed the first of her nine singles titles as a Czech in 1978 before later becoming an American citizen. Czech success is not limited to Wimbledon, but something in the water clearly agrees with them.
"It's a tradition at this point, I would guess, but I would say we are all kind of brought up in the same way in Czechia, in our game styles, in our tennis, but in some ways we are very different," Noskova said.
Noskova's Game on Grass
Noskova used her serve, powerful groundstrokes, and net skills to great effect against Kostyuk. "We are very creative, I would say, so grass allows us to kind of use any side of tennis, if it's serve and volley back in the old days, if it's slices and volleys in this new era. I would say that we have all these sides that we can use, that grass allows us, and it's showing," she added.
Noskova's win was her 19th on grass in the last two years, more than any other player on Tour. "I feel like I'm using my game, my game style on grass, a lot, and it's paying off," said the self-confessed nature lover.
Muchova's Grass-Court Instincts
Karolina Muchova also demonstrated tremendous grass-court instincts in a stunning third-set tiebreaker against American Coco Gauff. The 29-year-old 10th seed picked one stunning volley off her toes as she followed in her serve on one point, whipped up a sublime topspin lob on another, served an ace, and continued being aggressive even amidst suffocating tension.
When asked about the Czech secret formula, Muchova said: "I don't have a theory. Yeah, we have great history of Czech tennis. Definitely the fact that there is so many of us. Myself, when I was younger, looking up to the girls who were like maybe five years older than I was, you can just see them doing so well. It's nice that we're from such a small country and we have so many good players."
