Noskova makes Madrid escape vs. Gauff: 'The match is not over until it's over'

In the last 12 months, Linda Noskova won a match after saving match points and lost a match after having them, too.

And while she didn't face that scenario on Monday against Coco Gauff at the Mutua Madrid Open, her back was against the wall in the Round of 16.

After winning her first set in five played against Gauff, she lost 10 of 12 games to not just lose the second set, but stare down a double-break deficit in the third set.

"I know the match is not over until it's over," she told reporters after later completing a 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(5) comeback from 4-1 down in the decider.

"I was kind of saying to myself that I'm still close ... even though it's 1-4. I just wanted to find my rhythm and my game all over again."

The Czech started her third career meeting with Gauff solidly off the ground, hitting 11 winners to Gauff's four in the opening 10 games.

But last year's Madrid finalist, who overcame a set and a break deficit against Sorana Cirstea -- and mid-match sickness -- in the previous round, started to turn the match around early in the second set. Noskova failed to convert a break point at 1-1, and Gauff quickly won five straight games in the second set. Noskova won just four points in the last four games. 

"I was kind of hoping or counting on that game [in the second set] that I was going to have the break up and then it didn't happen and I kind of lost my rhythm," Noskova later said. "Obviously, also with Coco who is such a player, it's never easy to find it immediately back again and continue the way you want it to play. But I just wanted to restart in the third set."

Runs of games were again the story of the decider. Four of the first five went to Gauff -- including a hold from 0-40 down at 1-0 -- and four straight then went to Noskova. 

Both players ended the match with 30 winners -- and Noskova actually totaled more unforced errors than Gauff (40 to 27) in her victory. She also served far fewer aces -- eight, to Gauff's 13 -- but four of them came in the final set. But she won the points that mattered most in the match's dramatic conclusion.

Down 3-0 in the deciding tiebreak, Noskova won seven of the last nine points to take her first Top 10 victory of the season. 

"I let [the third set] go away a little too far, but I'm still glad I pulled it out," she added.

The 21-year-old, who played the China Open final last fall and reached the semifinals in Indian Wells, will seek her third career WTA 1000 semifinal when she faces No. 26 seed Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine on Wednesday. The two have never played previously.

"It's going to be a whole new different tactics," she said. "Obviously, [Tuesday] it's the first day off for me, so that's good. But [I'll] just practice, recover fast and see how I'm playing."