Toronto (Canada) (AFP) – Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova is eager to get back to work at the WTA 1000 hard court tournament in Toronto after the whirlwind that followed her first Grand Slam title. “Obviously the last couple of weeks have been nothing more but crazy and chaos, so I’m glad I can kind of start over,” said the 21-year-old, who was feted by Czech President Petr Pavel amid a welter of media appearances in her homeland before squeezing out a little holiday time in Italy.
Noskova sounded almost relieved as she spoke to reporters on Sunday that another tournament had rolled around. “It’s a new week, new tournament, new surface, it’s all the changes at the same time,” she said. “I’ll have to get used to it as fast as possible, but it’s a new opportunity for me to work on my tennis and get better.”
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Noskova, who moved to her current career-high seventh in the world after beating fellow Czech Karolina Muchova in the Wimbledon final, said it took a while for the achievement to sink in — if it actually has. “Maybe I will not realize it a hundred percent, you know, it’s always just one of those big things that actually happen and you’re not preparing yourself for that, it’s kind of like a big shocker,” Noskova said.
The key thing, she said, was making sure she didn’t treat the achievement of such a long-cherished goal as an ending but as a beginning. “I had to tell myself that it is not the end of the world,” Noskova said. “My career is not ending here, it is hopefully only starting. Winning a Grand Slam is an unreal thing. But at the same time, I’m still 21; I feel like since I accomplished this so soon, I feel like it’s even a bigger motivation for me to keep going.”
Noskova is in the bottom half of the draw anchored by second-seeded Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, with fourth-seeded Coco Gauff looming in her quarter. She’ll face either qualifier Tatjana Maria or Caty McNally in her second-round opener and could come up against rising Philippines talent Alexandra Eala in the third round.
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