Czech Noskova inspired by “the Petra Kvitova” as she sets her sights on Wimbledon title
The 21-year-old says she would love to follow in the footsteps of the two-time Wimbledon champion
Linda Noskova, Wimbledon 2026 | © Ch. Caillaud / PsNewz
Czech Linda Noskova says she’s hoping to emulate her hero Petra Kvitova by winning Wimbledon.
The ninth seed reached her first grand slam semi-final with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Linda Noskova on Wednesday. She will play Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk for a place in the final.
The 21-year-old’s the youngest first-time major semi-finalist since Kvitova in 2010, the year she won the first of her two Wimbledon titles.
When she won two Wimbledons, I definitely noticed that.
Noskova said Kvitova’s success had been an inspiration. “When she won two Wimbledons, I definitely noticed that,” she said. “Maybe she helped me to get into tennis a little bit. But for me, she’s such a person to look up to. I would love to follow her in her footsteps. If the outcome’s going to be the same, I would love nothing more.”
Noskova and Kvitova played each other twice. First time was in Miami in 2023, when Noskova won just three games; the second was in Cincinnati the same year, when the younger Czech got the better of her hero in three sets.
“Both of those, I was just kind of stunned that I was on the same court with “the” Petra Kvitova,” she said. “As a kid, I was always looking up to her. When I didn’t really know much about tennis, she was the face of Czech tennis.”
Noskova has won 10 of her last 11 matches on grass
Noskova has won 10 of her last 11 matches on grass, including winning the title in Berlin last month. But the first time she set foot on grass, she was not so sure.
“l feel like it was 2023, I had a first hit, I remember it, with Barbora Strycova,” she said. “She was coming back (after having a child). I think it was Nottingham. We had a first hit. I was so lost. I was so lost.
“She had all these great results on grass. It was tough to kind of match her rhythm. She’s also someone that I looked up to. It was fun to play with such an experienced player (but) I wouldn’t say that I would love grass in the future at that point.”
Should Noskova win the title, she would be the fifth Czech woman to triumph at Wimbledon, following Martina Navratilova, Kvitova, Barbora Krejcikova and Marketa Vondrousova. The list of previous winners from her country, she said, was also an inspiration.
“Czech tennis female players have always been incredible,” she said. “If you look at 10 years back, 20, 30, there’s always just been someone.
“We kind of still keep on going and keep on having great juniors and youngsters coming up. It’s great to see that the country is not stopping tennis.
“But I feel like for me it has always been the fact that us as such a small country, we can definitely do big things in the world if we look up to the people that did it.”
