Few players make the whole toolbox look this natural. Karolina Muchova blends heavy groundstrokes with drop shots, sliced backhands and genuine volleys, an all-court game that carried the Czech to the 2023 Roland Garros final, where she pushed Iga Swiatek to a deciding set, 2-6, 7-5, 4-6, and to a career-high No. 8 that September. Then the right wrist that had troubled her for years gave way during her US Open semi-final run, and the rise stopped mid-sentence.
Surgery in February 2024 kept her out for ten months; she returned that June and was back in the US Open semi-finals within three months of her first match. The fuller reward waited until 2026. At 29 she won Doha, her first WTA 1000 title, added a grass-court crown in Bad Homburg, and climbed back into the top ten. At Wimbledon that July she reached a second Grand Slam final, saving a match point against Coco Gauff in the semi-final and five championship points in the final itself, before Linda Noskova closed it out 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. The wrist has shaped her career as much as the talent has, and every healthy season keeps showing what the talent is worth.
Seven. That is where Linda Noskova sits in the WTA rankings this week, five places higher than a week ago, and the reason is a Wimbledon title. She beat Karolina Muchova in the final, and the two of them now sit side by side in the top 10, where last week there was one Czech.
Ranking taleSix. That is how many championship points Linda Nosková needed to win Wimbledon. The first five came and went in the second set, along with a 5-2 lead and then the set itself, before the 21-year-old reset and beat Karolína Muchová 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 for her first Grand Slam title, in her first Grand Slam final.
Match tale