“The perfect warm up,” says Nosková heading to Olympics
Linda Nosková made it all the way to the final of last year’s Livesport Prague Open, but this year, she’ll have to make do with the semi-finals. The top seed of the tournament failed to break Polish player Magda Linette and after a nearly three-hour long match, she fell 3-6 6-3 6-7(2). 19-year-old Nosková put up a proper fight in the third set, coming back from 3-5 down to deny Linette six match points.
The match was a spicy one. Linda Nosková was very aggressive in her play and tried to be creative, but Linette returned a lot of the chances and the clay surface helped her keep on top of things.
“I went into the game knowing she would control the match –
that’s how she plays best,” started Nosková after the match, “I did my best,
but I wasn’t feeling it from the start. Magda played well – clay surfaces suit
her more.”
This was Nosková’s first match of the tournament against a player from the World Top 100. Result aside, how did she feel? “It was the perfect warm up for me. This last game was tougher and longer which was great,” she said, “of course I would have loved to play in the final but that’s how things turn out sometimes. Now I’m focused on the Olympics.”
The Paris 2024 Olympics will get underway on Saturday and
promising Czech player Nosková will be there for it all: “It’s a shame that the
tournaments are all so close together, it’s hard to enjoy it all. The Olympics
are something you have to respect. I’m not stressing, I’m here to enjoy the
atmosphere and take everything in – you never know when you’ll be here again.”
Nosková will face China’s Wang Xiyu (54.) in her opening
singles game: “She’s a very good friend of mine – we played doubles together
many times. We’ll see how it all turns out, tournaments with clay courts are
always tough for me and the surface in Paris will be fast!”
Livesport Prague Open 2024
(women, CZE, 267 082 USD, clay)
Semi-final
singles
LINDA
NOSKOVÁ (27.) – Magda Linette (POL, 48.) 3:6, 6:3, 6:7(2)
Photo: Livesport Prague Open / Pavel Lebeda (sport-pics.cz)
Author: eSports
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