Muchova: Wimbledon final defeat is 'a setback, but a motivation'
Three weeks ago, Karolina Muchova would've been thrilled to know she'd be playing in the final at Wimbledon. Three hours ago, she was thrilled to extend her championship effort against Linda Noskova to a final set after trailing 6-2, 5-2 and saving five match points.
But after a 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 Centre Court defeat -- Muchova's second career runner-up effort at a Grand Slam event -- the Czech was left reflecting on an effort she dubbed equal parts disappointing and motivating.
"Getting to the final, I'll definitely take that before the tournament started," she said in her post-match press conference. "I had great couple of weeks. I think with the time I'll be happy with the results I've made past weeks."
Muchova called her performance in the final -- at least over the first hour-plus -- her worst of the tournament. After she had expertly neutralized the power game of other big hitters earlier in the tournament, including Naomi Osaka and Coco Gauff in the previous two rounds, she was flummoxed by Noskova's pace of play, and was left "looking for [herself]."
"I just wanted to fight for every point," she said of her mentality when facing the big deficit. "This tournament matters to me. I'm like, 'OK, I don't want to lose 2-6, 2-6.' I'm like, 'I'm going to do everything to break her serve and keep my serve.' I was still believing that I can turn it around."
After winning five games in a row to steal the second set, Muchova had three opportunities to break serve to start the decider. It proved a sliding doors moment, as Noskova broke her for a 2-0 lead and never looked back. Muchova also did not convert a break point opportunity in the third game that would've gotten her back on serve.
"It took a lot of power and strength out of me, I would say, to get back in that second set. I gave it my all," she added. "The people were cheering on me. I felt it. I felt the support. I felt the momentum in the second set, that I turn it around. It was definitely nice that it happened. ... Unfortunately then the start of the third kind of slipped through my fingers."
"If I had one regret, I would say in the first game of the second set when I had advantage, I had the forehand when I wanted to go down the line and I hit it back cross, and then she smashed it," she continued. "If I get that lead, 1-0, it would definitely feel different for me to start the set that way, but it didn't happen."
Despite the loss, which Muchova said was not dissimilar to her loss to Iga Swiatek in the 2023 Roland Garros final, she will leave SW19 at a new career-high ranking of World No. 6. She'll turn 30 next month, and says that she remains motivated to keep improving to earn more opportunities to win a major.
"I think my game is good. I'm improving, so I feel good on the court," she said. "It's a dream of mine, it's a goal of mine to lift that Grand Slam trophy. This is a setback, but as well a motivation."
