Linda Noskova: Czech star’s story in the touching words her mother Ivana Noskova before passing away
Linda Noskova suffered an unimaginable loss on the eve of Wimbledon in 2024 as her mother, Ivana, passed away after a long battle with cancer, and now two years later, the same tournament has delivered the highlight of her young career to date as she is just one win away from a maiden Grand Slam title.
A year after making her Wimbledon debut, the 18-year-old Linda had to deal with the loss of her mother as Ivana passed away on the Sunday before the main draw matches got underway at the All England Club.
Barely 24 hours later, the teenager stepped onto court to face Sara Errani in the first round and she beat the Italian in straight sets to claim her maiden win at the grass-court major before losing in the second round against Bianca Andreescu.
But just six months before Ivana’s death, she gave a lengthy, heartwarming interview with Sport Magazín – via Czech News Centre’s iSport – about the sacrifices the family made and how Linda became a superstar.
Ivana, who had two sons from a previous marriage, revealed that she was always a secret tennis fans, but it was only after she met Linda’s father, Drahos Nosek, that she was finally able to start playing tennis as her husband taught her to play the sport.
“In addition, we said that in the second marriage, in the second half of life, we could manage to have a baby. And so Linda was born,” Ivana said. “When I was on maternity leave, we spent quite a lot of time on the courts. My husband worked as a dispatcher and went on twelve-hour shifts. Thanks to that, he also had a lot of time off. The little one always toddled around us, until it ended up that we bought her a small racket.”
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Linda started playing from the age of three with Drahos coaching her and they eventually enrolled her in a tennis club in Valasske Mezirici – the same place where former world No 4 Tomas Berdych began his career.
But their daughter’s first tournament didn’t go according to plan as she was double bagelled by a player younger than her, leading Ivana to wonder, “I thought to myself at the time: Goodness, we try so hard, and it still doesn’t work out.”
Instead of giving up, her parents decided to send her for private lessons despite struggling financially, but Linda’s talent was hard to ignore as the family was told to head to the private Na Doline club near Roznov.
After their young daughter impressed the coaches, she was made an offer to train there, but there were once again doubts as Ivana stated: “My husband and I were looking at each other, wondering how much it would cost. Both of us immediately thought we wouldn’t be able to afford it. But Mr. Machovský told us everything would be for free. So we accepted.”
With both having full-time jobs, Linda’s parents had to plan their schedule meticulously in order to get their daughter to training and tournaments.
“My husband worked constantly on the railroad, and at that time I managed a sporting goods store,” Ivana said. “When we could, I alternated with my husband. He had two days off during the week, so he would go with Linda. I had weekends off, so I would take over from him then.
“We hardly saw each other, we were always just arranging how to manage things with our daughter. He would take her to training, then had to go to work, and I would come in the meantime, pick her up. And so on, in an endless loop. But somehow it worked.”
Bigger and better things came as Linda was sent to Switzerland to train at Melanie Molitor’s tennis academy. Molitor, of course, is the mother of Swiss great Martina Hingis, but Linda arrived home sooner than expected and Ivana was told to phone Melanie directly.
In Ivana’s own words, “I took the number, called, and heard: Molitor. I had no idea if it was her. So I started stuttering into the phone something about being the mother of the girl who was just there at their place. Melanie replied: She’s good material, but you Czechs haven’t done much with it. She said she has family in Moravian Wallachia and might visit them. On that occasion, we could meet. Eventually, we agreed to meet in Rožnov.”
When they eventually met, there was good news and bad news from Melanie.
“She spoke like a general. She told us that the serve was totally bad, that Linda didn’t have a forehand at all, and with the fitness she had, she wouldn’t get far,” Ivana recalled. “The foundation is good, but that’s about it. She offered us to come to her camp in Switzerland, where other children from various countries would also be training.”
Linda continued to train at Dolina back home, but they were then advised to move to Prerov, which was 80 kilometres away from their home and it meant the family was split up as Drahos continued to work at Czech Railways while Ivana had to leave her job.
“I started doing various one-day jobs. For example, I cleaned offices to have some small money and to be able to function with Linda in Prerov,” she revealed. “I provided all the support – I cooked, did laundry, cleaned, did administration, arranged training, sparring… It was a lot and she was still thirteen, fourteen years old.”
But while Linda improved and started training in Italy in February 2019, life would soon change drastically as Linda explained “I got sick.”
She revealed: “I got cancer. The doctors didn’t give me much of a chance and told me I had three to four months. I didn’t know how long I would be here. Eventually, it got better, but then it recurred.
“My husband came to Italy about twice, and we looked at each other like two strangers. It was a terrible period. To cut a long story short, we lasted eleven months in Italy – it wasn’t rosy at all. Then we were in the Czech Republic for Christmas with the idea that at the beginning of the year, they would find us better conditions in Italy and we would return.
“Fortunately, I must put it oddly, COVID came, the situation changed, and that solved everything. Italy was one of the worst affected by COVID, and returning there was out of the question. Some agents Linda didn’t interest them at all; people were fighting for their very lives there.”
Linda eventually met up with Tomas Krupa – the former coach of Berdych and Karolina Pliskova – and he took her under his wing in 2020 and by 2021 she started to make international waves as she won the French Open girls’ title that year.
In July 2022, she climbed into the top 100 of the WTA Rankings for the first time and just over six months later she made her top 50 debut.
The Czech youngster started the 2024 season with a run to the quarter-final of the Australian Open, upsetting world No 1 Iga Swiatek in the third round with her mother Ivana providing the interview with Sport Magazin just days after that match.
Ivana, sadly, passed away six months later and was unable to witness Linda lifting her first-ever WTA Tour singles trophy at the Monterrey Open in Mexico in August 2024.
Linda’s second career singles title came at the 2026 Bad Homburg Open, just days before the start of Wimbledon and now she has a chance to become a Grand Slam winner.
When asked during her interview with Linda’s strenght was, Ivana replied: “Linda is phlegmatic. She has this temperament from my husband. I think this trait makes a big part of her success. She just doesn’t care. Whether it’s break point or match point, she’s always calm. It’s not that it doesn’t matter to her, but she can detach herself from it.”
And that approach could be key to her winning the 2026 Wimbledon title.
Please do read the full interview on iSport.