Despite a gruelling breakthrough fortnight at the China Open, Linda Noskova is still going strong in the sweltering conditions of the Dongfeng Voyah · Wuhan Open. The 20-year-old Czech took down yet another big name in the second round on Wednesday, out-serving No. 11 seed Naomi Osaka 7-6(2), 6-3 in 1 hour and 28 minutes.
Wuhan: Scores | Draws | Order of play
Noskova has barely had a moment to breathe over the past week. On Saturday, she overcame Jessica Pegula from three match points down in a Beijing semifinal barnburner to reach her first WTA 1000 final. On Sunday, she lost in three hard-hitting sets to Amanda Anisimova. Two days later, she was back on court for her Wuhan first round, battling late into the evening to hold off Yulia Putintseva in a third-set tiebreak.
Less than 24 hours after that, Noskova powered to her 10th Top 20 win of 2025 over Osaka, in her first week as a Top 20 player (at No. 17) herself. She’s now won seven of her last eight matches.
For Noskova, the key to keeping her run going has been finding the balance between building on Beijing and starting afresh.
“I try to be as humble as possible, because every tournament is different,” she said after defeating Osaka. “You hve to step on a new court almost every single day. So I tried to focus just on this tournament, and leave what happened last week behind.
“But at the same time I want to bring that confidence on court. So I have to take some percentage of it as well.”
The percentage Noskova has retained includes superb serving form. She expected the quality of her delivery to be crucial against fellow big server Osaka, and so it proved: there was just one break of serve in the whole match. It went to Noskova in the penultimate game, allowing her to close out the win with an emphatic hold to 15. She had previously saved all four break points she had faced in the contest.
The serve-dominated dynamic also caused Noskova to note her pride in another area of improvement.
“I’m getting better at tiebreaks, I think,” she said. “So it was great to have another one on the board for me.”
The numbers bear out Noskova’s feeling. In 2024, she compiled a 12-8 record in tiebreaks. In 2025, she’s 14-4 and counting, including two already this week in Wuhan.
She’ll have the opportunity to make back-to-back WTA 1000 quarterfinals against either No. 8 seed Elena Rybakina or Jaqueline Cristian next.
AloJapan.com