POLISH duo Magda Linette and Magdalena Frech have made history in Prague by knocking off the two homecourt hopes in the WTA Tour 250 event’s semi-finals and creating the first all-Poland final of the Open era.
Frech had to overcome 16-year-old wildcard Laura Samson who was forced to retire at 4-2 down in the deciding set, while Linette also had to grind past a teenage Czech, being number one seed Linda Noskova in three sets.
The latter upon winning and confirming her place in the final against Frech was thrilled to have an all-Polish final.
“In Poland we have so many good players now,” Linette said. “All Top 50, which I’m not sure has happened before, so it’s really special.”
Linette spent more than an hour more on court against tournament favourite Noskova, finally ousting the top seed in two hours and 46 minutes, 6-3 3-6 7-6. The Polish fourth seed served nine aces to four and won a whopping 75 per cent of her first serve points to Noskova’s 66 per cent. While both players broke four times from 10 chances, it was Linette who stepped up when it counted in the deciding tiebreak to win that, 7-2.
It was only the second meeting between the two, with the other encounter being in Rome 2023 where Linette had done it far easier in straight sets. However now a Top 30 player, Noskova’s damaging forehand proved a much tougher task to overcome. She was far more prone to errors though, and in the end it was the Pole who held firm in the crunch moments.
As for Frech, she had never played Samson – a predominant junior player – before and quickly realised how much talent the former junior girls singles number one and Roland Garros finalist had. Already the youngest player into a WTA Tour semi-final in her debut tournament since Donna Vekic 12 years ago, Samson was not going to go down without a fight.
The teenager won the first set 6-3, before starting to feel the pain of a long week. Frech won six consecutive games in the second set and went a break up in the fourth skirting towards victory before the 16-year-old opted to call it quits.
The Polish duo have played once in the past back in 2022 during a 125 event in Saint-Malo where Frech pulled away to win, 7-5 6-7 6-2.
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