As Linda Nosková plays against countrywoman Karolína Muchová in the Wimbledon finals today, her late mother Ivana will undoubtedly be on her mind. Ivana passed away in summer 2024 following a long battle with cancer.
“I’m having a hard time finding words, it’s amazing, it’s like we’re living a beautiful dream! When Linda and I started going to the tennis courts at the age of seven, we never thought she would ever make it this far. We were expecting a normal, relaxed life with tennis,” Ivana told Denik.cz earlier in 2024 about her daughter Linda’s career. “My husband and I supported our daughters’s tennis efforts, which we had already at a more mature age, mainly during her school years with our time and trips to tournaments. Otherwise, Linda comes from normal circumstances.”
She added, “Linda and I have been in the tennis world for a while now, such moments have already come, for me on the current journey Linda and her team have shown incredible results considering the conditions she comes from. We started relatively late, moreover from a village with two hundred inhabitants against girls from big cities and better-off families.”
Ivana revealed she was unable to travel to Australia for the Australian Open. “I’m sick, the long journey itself is exhausting. We watch everything at home, keep our fingers crossed and stay in touch. Over the years, we’ve traveled together a lot.” Wimbledon was always her favorite, though. In 2023, she was there for the first time, “but I couldn’t do it for health reasons. I’m really looking forward to the atmosphere, the specific game on grass. As well as the traditional strawberries with whipped cream.” Sadly, Ivana passed away before Wimbledon 2024.
Linda’s father, Drahos Nosek, is retired. “My husband spends most of his time here at home, walking and cycling in the mountains,” Ivana said in that same 2024 interview, referring to their small town of Bystřička, in the Vsetín district of the Czech Republic. When Linda won an award for “the most successful athlete in the city of Přerov” in 2022, her father accepted on her behalf. “We never expected her to be in the top 100 so quickly. When you realize how many tennis players in the world are produced by Russia, America, China and other countries, and we from the Czech Republic, from a village, come into this, it’s more or less a shock,” Drahos said.
Her parents, Linda said, never emphasized only tennis. “I had, like, maybe six, seven, eight hobbies that I was focusing on,” she said ahead of the finals. “It was never mainly tennis. I had all the gymnastics, all the horse riding, just all the sports in the world because my parents were very into any sort of movement.”
Emily Burack (she/her) is the Deputy Digital Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, celebrities, the royals, and a wide range of other topics. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms.