Linda Nosková won her first Grand Slam title on Saturday, beating fellow Czech Karolína Muchová 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 on Centre Court to become, at 21, the youngest Wimbledon women’s singles champion since Petra Kvitová in 2011.
It took her six championship points to do it.
Nosková, the No. 9 seed, served for the match at 5-2 in the second set and was three points from the title. Muchová, the No. 10 seed, saved three there, then broke, then saved a fourth and fifth to run off five straight games and force a decider. The WTA said the five championship points Muchová erased were the most saved in any Grand Slam final, a claim that has not yet been independently confirmed.
The regroup. Nosková broke early in the third — her fourth break of the match — and served it out at 5-3, closing with an unreturned serve on her sixth chance before dropping to the lawn. The first set had taken 31 minutes and turned on two breaks. Kvitová, whose 2011 title Nosková has cited as the one she grew up watching, was in the Royal Box.
What it means for the rankings. Nosková is projected to enter the top eight at a career-high No. 7 when the WTA list updates Monday. Muchová, beaten in a major final for the second time after Roland Garros in 2023, is projected just ahead of her at a career-best No. 6. Both figures come from the WTA and should be treated as projections until the list publishes.
The grass record underneath it. Saturday was Nosková’s 20th tour-level win on grass since the start of last season, more than any other player on the WTA Tour, and her 12 wins on the surface this season also lead the tour. She won the Berlin title in the lead-in; Muchová won Bad Homburg. Per the WTA, this was the first Wimbledon women’s final in which both players had won a grass lead-up event since Martina Navratilová and Zina Garrison in 1990, and Nosková is the first player since Maria Sharapova in 2004 to win a grass warm-up and the major in the same year.
The Czech line. It was the first Wimbledon women’s singles final between two players of the same country since Serena Williams beat Venus Williams in 2009. Nosková’s route included a match point saved of her own — against Sorana Cîrstea in the third round, in a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(9) win. Muchová reached the final by beating three Grand Slam champions in succession: Barbora Krejčíková, Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff, the last after saving a match point in a deciding-set tiebreak.
Nosková is now 3-5 in WTA Tour finals.
