​The All England Club in London—like so much in women’s tennis—can be traced back to Martina Navratilova. She was the first great female champion of the modern era from what is now the Czech Republic, and she dominated Wimbledon’s grass with a level of achievement unseen before or since. Navratilova captured nine singles titles, added seven doubles titles, and collected four in mixed doubles. Although she defected from Czechoslovakia to the United States in 1975, she remained a beacon for young players back home as she ascended to the sport’s pinnacle.
Her influence extended far beyond her own glory, as the generations she inspired began a chain of talent that kept the Czech Republic in the global spotlight. Navratilova’s legacy helped cultivate Hana Mandlíková, who in turn nurtured Helena Suková and Jana Novotná, and later Petra Kvitová, Karolína Plíšková, Barbora Krejčíková, Markéta Vondroušová, and Kateřina Siniaková. Today’s doubles specialists and the country’s rising stars all trace a thread back to that early breakthrough. Suková, for instance, reached No. 1 in doubles and No. 4 in singles, and most of these players have claimed Grand Slam titles or ascended to No. 1 in the world. Except for Plíšková, Suková, and Siniaková, they all won Wimbledon singles titles. Plíšková made the singles final in 2021; Siniaková has three Wimbledon women’s doubles titles, two of them with Krejčíková; Suková captured women’s doubles crowns four times and the mixed doubles title three times.
In recent years, Linda Nosková and Karolína Muchová have stepped into the breach and continued the Czech tradition at the sport’s highest levels. Muchová recently defeated two-time major champion Coco Gauff in a dramatic tiebreak to reach her first Wimbledon final, while Nosková beat Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk to set up an all-Czech championship match in 2026. It’s remarkable that a country with just about 11 million people has produced half of the women’s semifinalists at Wimbledon this year and nearly 20 percent of the world’s top 50 players. Four Czech players reached the Wimbledon final 16, and more could have advanced if they hadn’t eliminated one another along the way. Krejčíková defeated Nikola Bartůňková in the third round, and Muchová then beat Krejčíková in the fourth round.
Nosková, at 21, acknowledged the seemingly perpetual supply of talent, saying, “There’s always just been someone.” When asked after her 6-3, 7-5 quarterfinal victory over No. 25 seed Elise Mertens, Nosková described how she views the Czech players’ prominence: “For me, it has always been the fact that as such a small country, we can definitely do big things in the world if we look up to the people who did it.” Krejčíková, who won the Wimbledon title two years earlier, emphasized the idea of building on the Czech women’s game’s legacy as a powerful motivation for her own career. “100 percent,” she affirmed.
Yet the surprising part about Nosková and Muchová is that their success may partly stem from embracing that legacy not as a sacred text but as a lightly held touchstone. Both have said they grew up largely unaware of what had come before them, letting that history serve as a general inspiration rather than a rigid guide. Muchová’s game—an all-court style many former pros compare to Roger Federer’s—has helped her outmaneuver veterans like Gauff, underscoring the blend of reverence for tradition and a modern, adaptable approach that characterizes today’s Czech tennis.