“I’ll come back,” vows Muchova after second Grand Slam final heartbreak
Karolina Muchova, twice a Grand Slam runner-up, vowed to keep chasing a maiden major title after falling to compatriot Linda Noskova in an emotional Wimbledon final defeat.
Karolina Muchova, Wimbledon 2026 | © Kieran McManus/Shutterstock/SIPA
Karolina Muchova left Centre Court a two-time Grand Slam runner-up on Saturday, but insisted her pursuit of a maiden major title is not over. The No.10 seed, beaten 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 by compatriot Linda Noskova in the Wimbledon final, fell just short for the second time in her career, having also lost the 2023 Roland Garros final to Iga Swiatek.
Speaking through tears at the trophy ceremony, Muchova said to her team: “I’ll be fighting more, I hope I’ll get a chance to get to the final again – and I’ll come back.”
Muchova’s only previous Grand Slam final ended the same way three years earlier, when Iga Swiatek beat her 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 at Roland Garros in 2023. The scoreline eerily echoes Saturday’s defeat, in which Muchova again clawed back to win the second set 7-5 only to lose 6-2, 5-7, 6-3.
At 29, Muchova is the oldest woman to reach a maiden Wimbledon final since Nathalie Tauziat in 1998, and her run to Saturday’s final – beating three Grand Slam champions in Krejcikova, Osaka and Gauff along the way – confirmed a return to her best tennis less than a year after wrist surgery threatened to derail her career.
From Muchova’s side of the net, it was a match of escapes that finally ran out. She lost the opener 2-6, saving four set points before Noskova closed it on the fifth. In the second, she survived an ice-cold start – down 0-1, 0-30 – to level at 1-1, then spent long stretches chasing a break before facing the match itself: three match points saved serving at 2-5, a fourth erased by a Noskova double fault, and a fifth turned away with a serve-and-forehand combination that carried her to 5-5 and, eventually, a 7-5 set.
The third gave her no such route back – broken immediately for 0-3 and 1-4, she managed one defiant hold for 3-5, but Noskova served out the title 6-3.
