Of all the emotions coursing through Linda Noskova’s body as she served for the Wimbledon title, the primary one may have been deja vu. The shadows had crept over Centre Court, the early evening sun had slipped lower, but the tension was the same as over an hour earlier. Then it had looked like the 21-year-old was on the brink of a straight-sets win, leading 6-2, 5-2, to claim her first grand slam title, a dismantling of Karolina Muchova to follow Iga Swiatek’s annihilation of Amanda Anisimova last year.
Until suddenly it wasn’t. What followed was a collapse of legendary proportions, followed by an equally astonishing reset, as if the events of the preceding hour hadn’t happened at all. Noskova stepped up to serve, blasted down an ace, and fell to the turf a 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 winner after nearly two and a half hours, the third-longest Wimbledon women’s final in history.
