By Tony Fairbairn, Britwatch Sports at WimbledonCoco Gauff reflected on a positive tournament after losing a last set tiebreak on Centre Court.Karolina Muchova embraced her ‘special moment’ after reaching the Wimbledon final.Linda Noskova believes her run to Wimbledon final came out of nowhere.LONDON, ENGLAND – Coco Gauff has no regrets despite missing match point in her Wimbledon semi-final against Karolina Muchova.
Coco Gauff has no regrets despite match point miss
Our day eleven talking points starts with Coco Gauff as the American just missed out on a first Wimbledon final.
The seventh seed lost a thrilling final set tiebreak to Karolina Muchova as her Wimbledon journey is over.
After her defeat Gauff admitted she was ‘happy’ despite the defeat and gave credit to Muchova for a ‘fun match.’
“There’s a lot of positives. Obviously got super close. Definitely going to think about the second, third, last point, whatever, but overall I think it was a positive tournament for me. A match for sure to remember. It’s tough to digest, but I don’t know, I’m happy,” Gauff acknowledged.
“Yeah, for sure. I mean, I always said that she’s obviously a successful player, but I think she’s someone that deserves more success of how talented she is. I think that we have the head-to-head that has leaned my way, but it’s not an opponent you want to face at any point of the tournament. I have so much respect for how she plays and how she is off the court.
“I don’t know. It’s just one of those battles that I’m honored — not honored, I don’t want to say honored to lose. I don’t know. It’s a match I’m going to remember for my career. It sucks to be on the losing end, but even walking off the court, I was like, That was a lot of fun.”
In her statement to begin her press conference Gauff referenced her match point miss in which she hit a big serve and had open court to work with before slicing a forehand into the net.
It was a tough moment for Gauff who could have hit a powerful forehand winner and secured her place in the Wimbledon final.
It wasn’t to be and Gauff said she has no regrets about how she handled the situation.
“I mean, there’s one thing to be, like, why play a dropshot, but then I think how many points I won off the dropshot. Yes, people who don’t watch tennis are going to be like, Why did you do that? At the end of the day, that’s the choice I made,” Gauff emphasized.
“Was it the right one in that moment? Maybe not. But then also, if I make it, everyone’s going to say how clutch of a shot that was. I think that’s just tennis. You lose some points off margins. Honestly, the return came back like in a tricky place for me. The bounce kind of caught me off guard. I just panicked a little bit. I think it just takes moments like this to learn from, have more of a clear, concise plan of what I want to do.
“At the end of the day, I left it all out there. My only regret — or I don’t have any regrets. I think it’s just obviously points I want to make better decisions. It’s not a painful story. I think thousands of people would love to lose the semifinals at Wimbledon on match point. This is something I wouldn’t love to experience again, for sure no. I think it will make my next moment when I win a match like this even sweeter.
“I had a match earlier this year, I saved six match points. It’s just one of those days where it didn’t go my way. Somebody had to lose, and unfortunately it was me today.”
It was a point that Gauff may have nightmares of and could struggle to come back from in the future.
However, it’s credit to Gauff’s mentality that she referenced past champions in her bid to be resilient.
“I mean, I’m going to think about it tonight. Yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ve ever lost a match after having match point. If I did, I don’t remember the last time. I don’t know how long it will take me. I don’t think that long, honestly. I think, yeah, right after I was a lot of emotions right after the match,” Gauff stated.
“But now I’m just, like, one decision away, maybe I’m sitting in this press conference in a different mood. I mean, I look at Roger lost match points here, Jannik obviously at Roland Garros. Every great champion has this happen in their career. Maybe this is something I need to be on their level.
“It’s a learning experience. I know I can do better and improve on that, and going with a higher-margin shot in a pressure moment, for sure.”
The sickening part about these defeats is the social media trolls that these players have to deal with after the match.
Reflecting on that side of things Gauff will make sure to stick it to them when she next wins a match.
“Sometimes I watch and sometimes I don’t watch. I don’t know. We’ll see,” Gauff responded when asked if she was going to watch the final.
“When I get home, if I’m up, I might have it on. I am one that, like, stings a little bit, especially so close, I don’t want to watch. Also, at the same time, I am a fan of tennis. The girls who are left, I think it’s going to be a great match. Obviously Karolina is great. Whoever she plays in the final is going to be great. Maybe I’ll watch; maybe I won’t. I’ll be online. Probably already got some hate comments and stuff. It’s okay. Just makes you stronger.
“Betters who lose who are mad and stuff. It’s the usual. It sucks, but it’s like, whatever. I’ll come on the winning end next time and I’ll be sure to tag ’em.”
Karolina Muchova embraces ‘special moment’ on Centre Court
As for Muchova it was glory as she reached her first Wimbledon final and showed great resilience to win a thrilling last set tiebreak.
After losing in the fourth round on four consecutive occasions, Muchova is finally back into the Wimbledon final.
In what was an epic match Muchova reflected on a ‘roller coaster’ tiebreak as she moved into a second Grand Slam final.
“No, honestly during that tiebreak, it was like kind of roller coaster as well emotionally for me,” Muchova acknowledged during her press conference.
“One point I felt good, I hit a nice winner, and then I did like a terrible mistake. In my head was just like I have to keep hitting. I was telling myself if I’m going to lose this, I want to lose on my own terms. My terms is going forward, playing aggressive, going to the net. Even though Coco, she is incredible athlete and she always gives you that one point back, I would say, so even though I knew when I hit a volley that she is still going to be there and hit few unreal passing shots throughout the whole match, but it’s kind of my game.
“I just wanted to stick to it.”
It was a day of first’s for Muchova as she is not only into a first Wimbledon final but it was her first time playing on Centre Court.
The former Roland Garros praised the Centre Court crowd and said reaching the final is a ‘special moment’ for her.
“Yeah, the court is unreal. I had a chance to actually warm up today on it, which I think was very helpful to kind of get used to the grounds and the roof and kind of just all surroundings. It’s a beautiful court. It was packed. It was such a great atmosphere,” Muchova glowingly said of Centre Court.
“Yeah, it’s a very nice experience to play on it – even better to get my first win there. It was very long, tough battle physically, mentally. It’s a very special moment. It’s a great achievement. This is one of the biggest tournaments that we have with all the, again, I’ll repeat myself, history, so many legends were playing here, as well to just get to play on the Centre Court, it was so nice.
“Yeah, just incredibly glad and happy that it happened and that I have a chance to play another final.”
It’s been a long journey for Muchova who had multiple wrist injuries and has been a career full of frustration.
When asked about her style of play, Muchova revealed she was never going to change her style of play and was close to having surgery last year.
“No, for me, last year it was either the pain is going to go away and I’ll be able to play or I’ll have a surgery,” Muchova claimed.
“It was never, if I would still have that pain, I would never play that way, and just try to find a way, play with one-handers, didn’t really go too well for me. Luckily it happened that the pain went away. We did a lot of work on that. I was able to, and I am able to, play again fully.”
Now, Muchova has a second Grand Slam final and recalled her previous experience when she reached the Roland Garros final a few years ago.
“I’d have to remember what I did in Paris. It’s been a while. It’s been three years. I don’t really know what I was doing in a day off,” Muchova recalled.
“But I will just try to do the same what I’ve been doing here these two weeks. Do the kind of same ritual, same stuff. Hit for 30 minutes tomorrow, try to keep it chill, recover as best as I can, then have that last match on Saturday.”
‘I couldn’t really believe it, I guess.’
These are the emotions of Linda Noskova who is into a first Grand Slam final after a straight sets win over Marta Kostyuk.
An incredible win from the ninth seed who can’t quite believe that she is into a Grand Slam final.
“I couldn’t really believe it, I guess. You always want to be in those moments. You always want to win these big matches. But when it actually happens, you don’t know how to react or kind of realize it,” Noskova admitted in her press conference.
“I always realize any success or any great matches or a good tournament after it’s all done. Right now I feel like I am already focusing on the final.”
Although Noskova won the title in Berlin and has been in good form recently, the run to the final has come as a shock to the ninth seed.
According to Noskova, the run to the final has come from ‘nowhere.’
“It always comes out of nowhere, I guess. You can’t really plan your success or good times,” Noskova stated.
“If I could do it, I would definitely be planning it on every Grand Slam. But after Roland Garros I was very, let’s say, mentally tired ’cause the clay season was long for me. I’ve had a lot of good matches, a lot of great tournaments, but French Open was a disaster for me.
“I kind of had to restart, reset, focus on just enjoying the time on court. This is where it got me. At this stage, I would say that it’s not about the big things; it’s about the small percentage.”
Now, an all-Czech final against Muchova awaits as the pair keep up the long history of success from the country at Wimbledon.
Noskova explained the secret behind Czechia’s success at Wimbledon and what she expects from Saturday’s final.
“It’s a tradition at this point, I would guess, but I would say we are all kind of brought up in the same way in Czechia, in our game styles, in our tennis, but in some ways we are very different,” Noskova explained.
“We are very creative, I would say, so grass allows us to kind of use any side of tennis, if it’s serve and volley back in the old days, if it’s slices and volleys in this new era. I would say that we have all these sides that we can use, that grass allows us, and it’s showing.
“We have so many tennis schools in Czech, even though we’re such a small country. We have so many great coaches that have been working with worldwide greatest players. I’m proud of our country for having all these great champions.
“We spent a lot of time together because we played doubles and almost got the medal. I feel like that was the main week for us to kind of get to know each other. I didn’t really know her well before. So yeah, this was the main event.”
Marta Kostyuk ‘grateful’ after recent Grand Slam run
The final word goes to Kostyuk who fell short of her first Grand Slam final after a straight sets defeat on Centre Court.
This was her second Grand Slam semi-final in the space of a couple of months having reached the first at Roland Garros.
After the match Kostyuk admitted she is ‘grateful’ for the opportunity as she looks to achieve more in the future.
“To play a good match, to be at the level where I am, it’s not an easy thing to do. That for sure. Again, I don’t know. It’s difficult to even compare these matches, because for me they are super different,” Kostyuk claimed in her press conference.
“It’s not like there is a pattern that happens and I’m like, Oh, I need to change this, because it happened twice. There is always something that you can get better at: return, serve, not rushing, your focus, everything. Everything has to be a constant improvement. I cannot point out, like, one or two things that I think. First of all, I didn’t even talk to Sandra about the match yet, so it’s going to happen tomorrow or maybe when we start practicing.
“I mean, two times. I played my first semifinal one month ago, and now I’m playing second. It’s a bit of a short time span for these things to kind of create a pattern in some way. I’m hoping I’m going to have a lot more opportunities.
“Right now, I mean, I’m grateful to have these two semifinals.”
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