The 2024 Wimbledon Championships is set to make history this Saturday, when two Czech compatriots and close friends, Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova, will put their personal bond aside to compete for the sport’s most prestigious grass-court Grand Slam title. Thursday will go down as a landmark day for Czech women’s tennis, as the pair booked their spots in the first-ever all-Czech women’s singles final at the All England Club, following two dramatic semi-final outings that took vastly different paths.
First to claim her place in the decider was 29-year-old Muchova, who pulled off one of the most dramatic comebacks of this year’s tournament, edging out American 2023 US Open champion Coco Gauff in a three-set thriller that stretched over two hours in sweltering 33-degree Celsius heat. Muchova saved a match point against her to seal a 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (12/10) win, booking her second career Grand Slam final and first at Wimbledon in stunning fashion.
The upset was far from an easy journey for Muchova, who has spent years on the cusp of Grand Slam glory and battling a string of debilitating injuries. The veteran has been competing on the WTA main tour for nine years, reaching the 2023 French Open final (where she fell to Iga Swiatek), as well as semi-final runs at the 2021 Australian Open and the 2023 and 2024 US Open. Remarkably, Muchova had lost in the first round of Wimbledon in each of her previous four appearances, and has overcome significant hardship just to take her place in the final. In 2022, doctors even advised her to retire from professional tennis entirely, and wrist surgery in 2023 and 2024 kept her sidelined for a combined 10 months. She also manages a grass allergy that requires daily medication to control, but has pushed past all obstacles to reach this milestone.
“It’s a very special moment. It’s a great achievement,” Muchova said after her semi-final win. “This is one of the biggest tournaments that we have with all the history, so many legends were playing here, as well to just get to play on the Centre Court, it was so nice.”
Just a few hours after Muchova’s dramatic win, 21-year-old Noskova took to Centre Court to secure her place in the final with a far more straightforward victory. The rising star dominated Ukrainian 12th seed Marta Kostyuk, wrapping up a 6-4, 6-4 win in just 79 minutes to book her first ever Grand Slam final.
In stark contrast to Muchova’s years of near-misses and injury battles, Noskova is currently riding a meteoric rise up the ranks of women’s tennis. She only made her Wimbledon debut in 2022, and enters the final as the youngest player to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals since Jelena Ostapenko in 2018. Over the past two years, she has won more grass-court matches than any other player on the WTA Tour, and claimed her maiden grass-court title at the Berlin Open earlier this month ahead of Wimbledon. Despite her rapid ascent, she says she is relishing the chance to play her first Grand Slam final against her close friend and doubles partner.
“Karolina is such a great fighter, such an incredible player, but mainly she is such a great person. I’m glad I can play my first final against her,” Noskova said.
Muchova and Noskova have been close friends for years, having bonded off the court and competed together in doubles at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but their shared run to the final also cements the Czech Republic’s remarkable legacy at Wimbledon. The country, which has a population of just 11 million people, will have its third women’s singles champion in four years, after Marketa Vondrousova won in 2023 and Barbora Krejcikova lifted the trophy in 2024. This legacy extends back decades, with Petra Kvitova claiming two Wimbledon titles in 2011 and 2014, Jana Novotna winning the title in 1998, and several other Czech players reaching finals over the years.
Muchova said that seeing the success of older Czech players early in her career gave her the belief that she could also reach the top of the sport. “We have great history of Czech tennis. Definitely the fact that there is so many of us,” she said. “Myself, when I was younger, looking up to the girls who were like maybe five years older than I was, you can just see them doing so well. So it gave me the belief that I can as well do it.”
For Noskova, that inspiration came from childhood idol Kvitova, whose two Wimbledon triumphs laid the groundwork for her own run at the All England Club. When Saturday rolls around, one of the two Czech players will add their own name to the storied history of the country’s success at Wimbledon, when they step out onto Centre Court to compete for the Venus Rosewater Dish.