{"id":108340,"date":"2026-04-27T18:54:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T17:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/?p=108340"},"modified":"2026-04-27T21:04:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T20:04:46","slug":"noskova-earns-her-stripes-in-madrid-with-a-stunning-comeback-against-gauff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/noskova-earns-her-stripes-in-madrid-with-a-stunning-comeback-against-gauff\/","title":{"rendered":"Noskova earns her stripes in Madrid with a stunning comeback against Gauff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Linda Noskova has delivered her first major performance at the Mutua Madrid Open. The Czech, ranked 13<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0in the world, has reached the last sixteen in the Caja Magica for the first time, claiming a hugely significant victory over Coco Gauff, the tournament&#8217;s third seed and 2025 finalist. Moreover, her win came after a hugely impressive comeback, overturning a 4-1 deficit in the third set and also battling back from 4-2 down in the decisive tiebreak. At just 21 years of age, she is knocking on the door of the top ten, and victories like this only bolster her credentials.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gauff arrived in Madrid as one of the favourites, with the recent memory of last year\u2019s final, where only Aryna Sabalenka was able to stop her. She also boasts a strong record in WTA 1000 tournaments, having won three titles in the category, and her clay court pedigree continues to grow after her triumph at the 2025 French Open.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For Noskova, the victory marks a double breakthrough. It\u2019s her first win over Gauff, who was leading their head-to-head 2-0, and also her first win over a Top 10 player in 2026. Until now, the Czech had suffered three defeats this season against opponents of that calibre. She has broken out of that rut in Madrid, a highly demanding venue.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Czech thus reaffirms her progress in the Caja Magica, where her best result prior to this year had been the third round in 2025. A finalist last year at the WTA 1000 in Beijing and a semi-finalist this season in Indian Wells, Noskova has once again shown she has the game to compete in the latter stages of the biggest tournaments.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her triumph also strengthens the Czech presence at this year\u2019s Mutua Madrid Open, with Karolina Pliskova already through to the quarter-finals. These results continue the legacy of Czech tennis in Madrid, where Petra Kvitova leads the way with three titles in 2011, 2015, and 2018. Noskova is still charting her own path, but her victory over Gauff stands out as one of the tournament\u2019s biggest upsets.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Czech now awaits the winner of the clash between Ukraine\u2019s Marta Kostyuk (23<sup>rd<\/sup>\u00a0in the world) and the American Caty McNally (52<sup>nd<\/sup>), as she seeks a spot in the semi-finals. It is a golden opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Linda Noskova has delivered her first major performance at the Mutua Madrid Open. The Czech, ranked 13th\u00a0in the world, has reached the last sixteen in the Caja Magica for the first time, claiming a hugely significant victory over Coco Gauff, the tournament&#8217;s third seed and 2025 finalist. Moreover, her win came after a hugely impressive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":108311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[843,837],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias-tenis-femenino-en","category-noticias-tenis-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108341,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108340\/revisions\/108341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}