A jubilant Linda Noskova said seeing the Wimbledon trophy sitting by Centre Court helped her reset at a vital time as she clinched her first grand slam title with a dramatic 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 victory over fellow Czech Karolina Muchova at Wimbledon.
The 21-year-old led 6-2, 5-2 only to miss five match points as Muchova levelledbut Noskova took a bathroom break and reset brilliantly to become the sixth Czech woman to lift the title in the Open era.
“What really helped me, the first step I took off court, the trophies were there,” Noskova said. “I was like, I’m not going to take the small one, I’m taking the big one. I have been so close. This will probably be the heartbreak of my life. I just kind of started to focus on myself all over again, which was the key point.”
Noskova said the first game of the final set, when she saved three break points, was the crucial moment in the match.
“Let’s say I’m brave enough to say that the third set would not have been the same if maybe I would have lost the first game,” she said. “I lost five games in a row in the second one, so it was very, very important to start off in a good way in the third one.”
Noskova admitted she would rather have finished it off in two sets but was proud of her resilience.
“I feel like if I would have saved the spectators, my team or myself the stress and all the heart-stopping moments, I would say that that would be better. Just winning it this way, really having to fight for it, having all these ups and downs, it matters a lot, but I do have to learn a lot from this match, definitely.”
Muchova said it was “one of my worst matches of the tournament” and revealed that the effort of levelling the match left her almost spent. “She played really fast and I was kind of looking for myself,” she said. “It took a lot of power and strength out of me, I would say, to get back in that second set. I gave it my all.
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The 29-year-old tried to emphasise the positives. “It will definitely take me a few days,” she said. “But I was in the finals. It’s still a pretty great achievement. It’s still something I would take before the tournament.
“I think my game is good. I’m improving. I feel good on the court. Yeah, it’s a dream of mine, it’s a goal of mine to lift that grand slam trophy. This is a setback, but as well a motivation.”
