By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday January 7, 2023
Linda Noskova has started the season in the best possible way, notching colossal wins en route to her first WTA final.
In 2022, Linda Noskova made waves on the senior tour by rising from outside the Top-250 to inside the Top-100, the 2021 Roland-Garros Girls Singles champion making it clear that she had a future on tour.
In 2023, she’s already making more–and bigger–waves.
By reaching the final at Adelaide, from qualifying, current World No.102 Noskova has already assured herself of a Top-60 ranking next week, and she’s done it in dramatic fashion.
The 18-year-old Czech has saved match points twice in Adelaide en route to reaching her first WTA Final. She did so on Friday against two-time Slam champion victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals, after doing the same against Anna Kalinskaya in the first round of qualifying.
Having never faced a Top-10 player prior to this week, Noskova has proven a worthy adversary for the game’s elite by defeating No. 8-ranked Daria Kasatkina in the first round and No.2-ranked Ons Jabeur in the semifinals.
Noskova took out Jabeur 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 on Saturday and will square off with No.2 seeded Aryna Sabalenka in the final.
Sabalenka rocketed past Irina-Camelia Begu, 6-3, 6-2, and has yet to drop a set this week, and seeks her 11th WTA title.
Noskova is playing in her fifth WTA-level event. She reached the semifinals at Prague last year.
By defeating Jabeur on Saturday, she improved to 4-0 on the season and 8-4 lifetime on tour, and became the youngest player to reach the final of a WTA 500 event since Caroline Wozniacki in New Haven in 2008.