Few teenagers pick their moment like Linda Noskova did. At the 2024 Australian Open, aged 19, she beat world No. 1 Iga Swiatek in the third round, the first teenager to knock out a No. 1 in Melbourne since 1999, and ran on to the quarter-finals. Adelaide had hinted at it a year earlier, when she qualified and beat Daria Kasatkina, Victoria Azarenka and Ons Jabeur to reach a WTA final at 18. Born in 2004 in Vsetin, she plays first-strike tennis, a big serve and flat, early hitting off both wings.
The results have kept pace with the promise: a maiden title in Monterrey in 2024, a first WTA 1000 final at the 2025 China Open, then a statement week in Berlin in June 2026, where she beat Jessica Pegula in three sets for her first grass-court trophy and, the Monday after, a top-10 debut. Three weeks later she was a Grand Slam champion: at Wimbledon she beat Karolina Muchova 6-2 5-7 6-3 in an all-Czech final, converting her sixth championship point after five had slipped away in the second set. Czech women's tennis has a deep tradition, and at 21 Noskova is its newest major champion.
Two. That is how many Grand Slam titles Elena Rybakina has won in 2026. She beat top seed Aryna Sabalenka 6-4 5-7 6-2 in the US Open final for her third career major, after Wimbledon in 2022 and this year's Australian Open, and it means every Grand Slam final the pair have played in 2026 has gone Rybakina's way.
Match taleFive hundred and eighty. That is the ranking of Thea Frodin, the wildcard who opens the US Open against second seed Elena Rybakina. The women's singles draw was made today, ahead of the tournament's start on 30 August, with top seed Aryna Sabalenka, the world No. 1 and defending champion, opening against Camila Osorio.
Draw tale