Wimbledon champ Noskova: From Czech village to tennis spotlight

By Grant Thompson

The 21-year-old is competing in Cincinnati

Raised in a small village far from the limelight, Linda Noskova grew up amid lush, rolling hills and wooded countryside of the Zlín region in eastern Czechia, some 200 miles from the country’s capital city Prague.

“Just forest, trees, animals everywhere. It was very down-to-earth conditions,” Noskova said, describing her hometown, Vsetín, to CincinnatiOpen.com.

That quiet upbringing could hardly be further removed from the attention garnered at Wimbledon, where Noskova won her first Slam title last month and etched her name in tennis history. Still at the young age of 21 with a promising career ahead, Noskova is not letting the notoriety change her.

“I try to see myself the same as I was a couple weeks ago,” said Noskova, seeded sixth at the Cincinnati Open. “Nothing has changed except that I have the trophy at home.”

There was not a dry eye during the Wimbledon trophy ceremony when Noskova dedicated her biggest career triumph to her late mother, Ivana, who passed away in 2024 due to cancer. (Noskova played her first-round Wimbledon match in 2024 the day after her mother’s passing).

“I definitely would not be standing here without her,” Noskova said, looking up to the sky and blowing a kiss, while holding the iconic Venus Rosewater Dish.

After that emotional high of winning the most historic tournament in tennis, Noskova returned to her stomping grounds, a haven of sorts.

“I’ve never really been raised knowing from the beginning that I was going to be in these moments and play these players,” Noskova said. “It’s all kind of new to me.”

Noskova became the youngest Wimbledon women’s champion in 15 years, since her fellow Czech Petra Kvitova was victorious in 2011. Despite its small size, Czechia has 10 players inside the WTA Top 100. The country has had Hall of Famers such as Martina Navratilova, Helena Suková, Hana Mandlíková and Jana Novotná, among others. (Former ATP No. 1 Ivan Lendl is among Czechia’s men’s legends).

A Czech winner was guaranteed in the Wimbledon women’s final, with Noskova ousting 29-year-old Karolina Muchova in the first all-Czech final in Grand Slam history. Noskova needed six championship points to finally get over the finish line against Muchova (6-2, 5-7, 6-3).

“I do cherish those two weeks a lot and I always try to keep myself going back to that moment, reliving those moments when I played my best,” said Noskova, the third different Czech to win the Wimbledon title in the past four years (Markéta Vondroušová, 2023; Barbora Krejčíková, 2024).

“But at the same time, I try not to get stuck in those two weeks that happened. I always try to find a mix of those two feelings.”

Where does Noskova’s never-too-high, never-too-low mentality come from?

“I’ve always been like that. I just tried to keep myself as humble as possible, down to earth,” said the World No. 8, who first cracked the Top 10 two months ago after winning the Berlin WTA 500 event, on grass, the same surface as Wimbledon.

“I know that, as it happened, in the next tournament I can lose in the first round,” she added, referring to her Toronto opening loss to Cincinnati-native Caty McNally. “So, such a win is very important for my career, but at the same time the tennis goes on.”

A nature lover who looks forward to participating in environmental projects in the future, Noskova began playing tennis aged six. She — like many other young female athletes — idolized 23-time major champion Serena Williams. Little did the pure-ballstriker Noskova, who rarely deviates from her trademark poker face, know that she would someday win at the All England Club, where Williams triumphed seven times in singles.

Regardless of what lies ahead, Noskova will always remember her fortnight at SW19.

“You want to have something that puts a stamp on the work that you do, which are the titles and the good results,” Noskova said. “But at the same time, I’m just going to try and keep going 100 per cent, putting in all the effort I can. Then I’ll finish my career and just look back at my career and be like, ‘Okay, [if] this is all that I could do’, I will be happy.”