“I’ll come back,” vows Muchova after second Grand Slam final heartbreak

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.

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Tennis Majors

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.