After two hours and 27 minutes, Linda Noskova buried her face between her knees and wept the tears of a Wimbledon champion. In those moments of euphoria, she might just have wondered how a procession had been allowed to drift into a minor classic.Because this final was done an hour earlier. She had it won. It was Over. Ova, even. At 6-2, 5-2 up Noskova had squeezed her Czech mate, Karolina Muchova, into the corner of the board. Nowhere to go, no air to breathe, and it had been easy.But ‘almost’ isn’t the same as finished. Almost means there is a chance. And through that tiny space crawled Muchova to create a thriller out of a match that threatened to be the dampest of squibs.She would take five straight games to win that second set, saving five Championship points along the way, and then Muchova opened the third by charging to three break points. What on earth was happening? How could this be?On a weekend where we had pondered the brilliance of female Czech tennis players, who had been guaranteed a third different winner of this crown in the space of four years, we were suddenly looking further back into their nation’s past. All the way to 1993, in fact, and to Jana Novotna. To the cruellest choke.But this wasn’t that. Noskova, the younger by eight years at 21, found something. She dug in and the choke cleared. After saving those three break points, she held, and after holding, she broke. This time she did not relent, closing out a 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 victory that offered far better value for a ticket than anyone had imagined. Linda Noskova was overcome with emotion as she won her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon The 21-year-old accepted the Venus Rosewater dish from the Princess of Wales on SaturdayWhen it was done, Catherine, Princess of Wales, entered the court for the presentation party, where once Duchess of Kent had consoled Novotna. To Noskova’s great relief there was no need for a repeat but it was a close-run thing.‘This feels incredible,’ Noskova said on Centre Court. ‘All these matches have been tough, physically and mentally so tough.‘It’s never easy to get the last point. Karolina, you really made me work for it.‘We are friends. I am so glad I could play my first Grand Slam final with you, we made history today.’Muchova could at least find some humour in defeat. Joking through the tears, she said: ‘Linda, you’re my ex-friend.’She added: ‘You are so young, your first final and the way you handled it was really unbelievable. You are a kind person and human being. Congratulations. You deserve it. I want that trophy.’For Noskova, the ninth seed, the victory cemented two thoughts – one is her dominance on grass. Since the beginning of 2025, no woman has won so many matches, and this first Slam title was reward for a game that draws its best from power but has plenty of craft alongside it. How those suits who run the sport in the United Kingdom and United States must look on with envy. Building a few extra tennis courts here would no doubt help, but it is also about coaching hubs and intrinsic desire and role models for excellence.Perhaps we have too many other sports for distraction over here, but Czechia’s glory ought to embarrass the so-called bigger nations, who burn cash and wild cards in return for early exits. Arthur Ferry was a sight to behold in the men’s draw, but the British women melted dismally. Again.But those are debates for another day. This one belonged the strange undulations of a strange final. Initially, it was Muchova who seemed most affected by the occasion, which is unusual because the 29-year-old, seeded 10th, had contested the 2023 French Open final. She had felt the rarefied air in her throat. Noskova and her opponent Karolina Muchova are good friends and played doubles together at the 2024 Olympics in Paris The ladies champion ended her speech with a touching tribute to her mother two years after her tragic death from cancerAnd yet she flopped in the first set, in which she was broken twice but made it easy for Noskova.At her best, Muchova is a joyful explosion of angles and spins; of versatility and disguised intentions. Those traits had coloured her fortnight. But here, the drop shots were dropping long, her baseline drives were stalling short, her forehand was a mess and the serve was eventually chopped off like a three-quarter golf swing just to achieve the bare minimum of a ball in play.All of which can be okay, of course. But if the player on the other side senses fear, you have a problem, and that occurred quickly in this final. Noskova punished her for it. And carried that trend deep into the second set.A word on what happened at 5-2 – it was so one-sided that we could spy the presentation staff getting ready to enter the court. But then came the turn, illuminated by the 20-point marathon of game nine, when Noskova double-faulted on one of her Championship points and Muchova eventually broke on her seventh chance.That moment seemed to spark a crisis in Noskova, who plugged her ears to ignore the noise of the crowd. Before long, she had been broken again and the set was gone, and the third too started poorly. Out of that tailspin, she managed to climb and took the title after an almighty scare. BRITS MAKE HISTORY IN SW19 BY MATTHEW LAMBWELL AT WIMBLEDON Henry Patten became the first British man in the Open Era to win two Wimbledon doubles titles - and will now hope that is enough to earn himself membership.The 30-year-old from Colchester and his Finnish partner Harri Heliovaara beat Mate Pavic and Marcelo Arevalo 7-6, 7-6 to add to their titles here in 2024 and at the Australian Open last year.Patten was then asked if, with a resume like that, he would be looking for membership of the All England Club. ‘I'd love one,’ he said. ‘It seems like a nice club!'He would likely be a member already were in not for a row with one of the practice court groundstaff last year, for which he was fined by the club. Surely a second title will get him over the line.This tournament has taken place against the backdrop of a leaked ATP plan to reduce prizemoney and field size for doubles events, a move which could kill of the careers of specialists such as Patten and Heliovaara.‘I’ve said it all week, every round we’ve played has been a full crowd,’ said Patten. ‘There's this very strong narrative that the product itself isn't good enough. I think we've proven that to be wrong.'On No 1 Court, Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid continued their near-total dominance of wheelchair men’s doubles as they came from a set down to win their seventh Wimbledon title together.‘It's amazing,’ said Scotland’s Reid, 34. ‘We would have never imagined 10 years ago when we had our first final here we'd have seven titles together. Really special and what an atmosphere and environment to do it in.’In that decade since coming together they have won 26 Grand Slam doubles titles, including 19 of the last 25.In beating Japan’s Tokito Oda and Gustavo Fernandez of Argentina 2-6, 6-1, 6-2, Reid and Hewett avenged their defeat in the final of the US Open last year.Hewett, 28, from Norwich, will return on Sunday, to face world No1 Oda in the singles final.