What Makes Linda Noskova So Lethal on Grass?

Across the last two seasons, Linda Noskova has won more matches on grass (18) than any other player. The surface, with its low bounce and slick, speedy pace, is perfectly suited to her abundance of weapons.

“I feel like I can use a lot of sides of my tennis,” she said after defeating Elise Mertens in straight sets to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal. “I can use a lot of dropshots, slices, approaches to the net, I can use my serve a lot. Just my game style helps me throughout all the tough times.”

Tough times? There haven’t been many on grass this summer for the No.9 seed, who has won 10 of her 11 matches on the surface, including her maiden grass-court title in Berlin, where she defeated Jessica Pegula in the final. She needed three sets and a match tiebreak to rally from a set down against Sorana Cirstea in the round of 32, but since then she has won six consecutive sets, capped by today’s 6-3, 7-5 victory over Mertens.

“I feel like I started to feel comfortable on grass last year,” Noskova said. “It was just me looking forward to the next year on grass. It’s good that I’m looking forward to something. Then you feel comfy on court.”

What makes her so difficult to play against? Elise Mertens offered her perspective after Tuesday’s quarterfinal.

“Hard hitter,” she said. “You cannot give her two, three balls into her strokes. She’s really feeling the ball. I think under pressure she’s still playing well.”

Madison Keys, who fell 6-4, 7-6(2) to Noskova in the round of 16, was equally impressed.

“She’s got a great serve,” she said. “She comes forward really well. She’s very good at the net, and she has really good hands.”

Keys, known for taking the racquet out of her opponents’ hands, said Noskova did exactly that to her.

“It’s just kind of one of those combinations where she’s constantly dictating, and you feel like she’s trying to take time away from you,” she said. “Then she also has the variety. So she has a little bit of everything that makes her really dangerous, especially on this surface.”

Mixing in variety to keep her opponents off balance is another hallmark of Noskova’s grass-court game.

“I thought she was especially good with some of the dropshots. You’re backing up because she hits such a good ball, and then she’s able to throw something else in,” Keys said.

It all adds up to a game built for grass.

Hailing from Czechia, a country that has produced women’s grass-court royalty with remarkable regularity—think Martina Navratilova, Hana Mandlíková, Jana Novotná, Petra Kvitová and Barbora Krejčíková—Noskova could be the next great Czech to thrive on the lawns of Wimbledon.

“The Czech tennis female players have always been incredible,” she said. “If you look at 10 years back, 20, 30, there’s always just been someone.

“I feel like for me it has always been the fact that us, as such a small country, we can definitely do big things in the world if we look up to the people that did it.”