Linda Noskova avoided the fate of her compatriot Jana Novotna, who famously wept on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent, as she survived a thrilling comeback.
But the five straight games that Noskova lost in set two of this memorable final did not sink her challenge in the way that a similar five-game run had for Novotna against Steffi Graf in 1993.
Instead, Noskova showed enormous strength of character to regroup from wasting five match points in that second set, and came through in the decider instead. The result – a 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 victory for Noskova – came up in two hours and 27 minutes and did much to erase the memory of last year’s 6-0, 6-0 blowout in this equivalent match.
I haven’t yet mentioned Noskova’s opponent, another Czech star in Karolina Muchova. Which is remiss of me, because Muchova contributed enormously to the spectacle followed by a stellar assembly in the Royal Box, actresses Lily Collins, Hannah Waddingham and Jodie Foster among them.
To tell you the truth, we press-box denizens have not enormously welcomed the rise of the Czech women, who have now claimed three of the last four Wimbledon titles. As a group, they have a cultural matter-of-factness that rarely makes them colourful interviewees.
But their tennis is almost always stylish and rewarding to watch. This match had so many entertaining cat-and-mouse exchanges which covered the full acreage of the court.
Muchova came in as the player whose net-rushing style had attracted more attention, with former Wimbledon doubles champion Pam Shriver describing her as “a right-handed Martina Navratilova”. But it was Noskova who spread play more ingeniously with her drop shots and lobs, including the perfectly calibrated lob onto the baseline that clinched the first set.