Noskova on Digesting Defeat: Going to Get Drunk

By Richard Pagliaro | Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Photo credit: Jon Buckle/ROLEX

NEW YORK—Haunted by losing her third-set lead against the world No. 1, Linda Noskova shared her clear coping mechanism for driving Grand Slam ghosts from her head.

Get hammered.

Wimbledon winner Noskova opened a 4-2 final set lead over Aryna Sabalenka only to see the two-time champion stage a fierce fightback edging the Czech 7-6(1), 3-6, 7-6(7) to battle into her sixth straight US Open semifinal.

Afterward, Noskova said she was planning to digest a draining defeat drinking off her disappointment.

“I’m going to stay for, like, three more days,” Noskova said. “I’m going to get drunk and forget about this, I guess (laughter).

“I’m old enough to do that, thankfully.”

Despite hitting four more winners than the four-time Grand Slam champion (46 to 42) and cracking 18 aces in the match, Noskova could not sustain her third set lead.

Grand Slam tiebreak queen Sabalenka, who holds the Open Era record winning 21 consecutive major tiebreakers, scored her 10th straight US Open tiebreaker win today.

The top seed’s comeback left Noskova praising Sabalenka—and invoked major thirst in the 21-year-old Czech.

“The first one went horribly for me. I didn’t start well. It’s always very tough to get it back as the tiebreak is just about a few points,” said Noskova, who was down 0-6 in the first-set tiebreaker. “But in the third one, I obviously had my chances. The had double fault, which did not really help me at a crucial time,
so I feel like that was just one of the main mistakes that I did.

“But at the same time, it’s good to look at a match and be like, okay, one or two points made the whole difference.”

Ultimately, Noskova can raise her glass to a strong Grand Slam season in which she won her maiden major title at Wimbledon and put the two-time defending champion in dire straits in the third set today only to see Sabalenka storm back.

“I feel like especially after these matches when you’re so close to getting to another semifinal of a Grand Slam in one year or, you know, beating the best player in the world, it kind of reminds you of where you are standing or what position you’re in,” Noskova said. “So, yeah, I have to take some positives from this whole
tournament. It was not easy coming here from such a success I had on grass court.

“I will just try to keep going, you know. I feel great on court, which is always my main point, and ranking doesn’t really matter. But it gets me to some cool places.”