Before a Double Czech Final, a Repeated Question

As they excel year after year at Wimbledon, Czech women always get asked why.

WIMBLEDON, England — Because her deepest tournament runs hadn’t previously aligned with my own travel schedule, the first time I ever attended a Linda Noskova press conference, to my memory, was quite recent: last month at WTA 500 Berlin.

I was immediately impressed. The 21-year-old Noskova spoke bluntly and freely, with a searing honesty that had the WTA moderator looking ready to clutch her pearls. (Many of those answers will come in Bounces features that I’m looking forward to publishing in the next few months.)

While being at a Noskova press conference was a new experience for me, one of the questions she got from another reporter in the room rang very, very familiar. And with Noskova set to play in the Wimbledon final against Karolina Muchova—the first¹ all-Czech final in Grand Slam history—it’s a question and topic we’ll all be hearing a lot more on Saturday and beyond.

“How is Czech tennis so good? Is there something in the water?”

It’s a very fair question, to be sure, given how unlikely their success is. The Czech Republic has a population of about 10.9 million, about the same as North Carolina, but it’s about to win its third Wimbledon women’s title in the last four years. How do they do it?

Linda Noskova reacts after reaching the Wimbledon final. (Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth / AP)

The answers have varied, but the questions have mostly stayed the same.

Having heard variations of this query for years, particularly at Wimbledon where Czech women will have now won three of the last four titles, I went digging through the archives here, looking for both the question and its answers. It took some time, but after compiling all the Czech women’s Wimbledon press conference transcripts since 2010, I can share how often this question has been asked, and how these various women have responded.

And for Muchova and Noskova, how they feel about getting this question over and over.