TOP seed Linda Noskova wasted no time in reaching the 2024 Prague Open semi-finals overnight, blasting her way to the final four in just 68 minutes on court. The 19-year-old beat fellow teenager, German Ella Seidel in a dominant 6-1 6-3 performance as her three other semi-finalists all spent more than two hours on the court.

The Prague Open semi-finals contains two Czechs and two Poles in a nice symmetry, with number one seed Noskova now taking on fourth seed Magda Linette. At the other end of the draw, 16-year-old Laura Samson will look for a spot in the final against Polish sixth seed, Magda Linette.

In Noskova’s win, the young gun served seven aces and won a whopping 22 of 27 first serve points (81 per cent), while also backing up for a second serve percentage of 58. Had it not been for the three double faults, Noskova would have lifted that percentage up to 70.8 per cent, only dropping 12 points in play on serve.

By comparison, the inexperienced Seidel served seven double faults in the match and only won six of 23 second serve points, while being broken five times. Ranked 150th in the world, the Hamburg local has played a lot of tennis this year, coming into the tournament with a 24-21 record, but is still trying to crack into consistent WTA Tour tennis.

The advantage for Noskova is how long her next two opponents spent on court, with Linette needing almost three hours to dispose of determined Bulgarian, Viktoriya Tomova in three sets, 4-6 6-3 6-2. Linette is one win away from repeating her appearance at the Open de Rouen where she lost to Sloane Stephens on the French clay.

In the other quarter finals, Czech wunderkind Samson came from behind to knock over in-form Russian qualifier Oksana Selekhmeteva a day after defeating Top 40 player Barbora Krejcikova. Samson won 2-6 6-3 7-5 in two hours and 41 minutes.

In winning, Samson became the youngest WTA Tour semi-finalists since Coco Gauff in 2019.

Samson will now take on Linette after she disposed of the inconsistent Anhelina Kalinina. The match – which lasted two hours and five minutes – was symbolic of that. After losing the first set 6-2, Frech only dropped one more game for the match, coming away an incredible 2-6 6-0 6-1 winner.

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Budding Russian talent Mirra Andreeva blitzed her way into the semi-finals with a dominant 6-2 6-0 win over Croatian lucky loser, Lea Boskovic. The 17-year-old tuned up for the Olympics by only dropping 10 points on serve – including two double faults – while breaking five times without facing a break point herself.

Andreeva will take on Serbian Olga Danilovic in the semi-finals after she overcame eight seed Anna Bondar in straight sets, 7-5 6-2. In the other quarter final, Chloe Paquet bounced back from a bagel to win 0-6 6-2 6-1 over compatriot and qualifier Selena Janicijevic. She will take on either third seed and local hope Jaqueline Cristian, or fifth seeded Russian Elina Avanesyan, with the winner of that quarter final having to do back-to-back duties.