The Albany Gazette - Wimbledon champ Noskova ready for 'new opportunity'

"Obviously the last couple of weeks have been nothing more but crazy and chaos, so I'm glad I can kind of start over," said the 21-year-old, who was feted by Czech President Petr Pavel amid a welter of media appearances in her homeland before squeezing out a little holiday time in Italy.

Noskova sounded almost relieved as she spoke to reporters on Sunday that another tournament had rolled around.

"It's a new week, new tournament, new surface, it's all the changes at the same time," she said. "I'll have to get used to it as fast as possible, but it's a new opportunity for me to work on my tennis and get better."

Noskova, who moved to her current career-high seventh in the world after beating fellow Czech Karolina Muchova in the Wimbledon final, said it took a while for the achievement to sink in -- if it actually has.

"Maybe I will not realize it a hundred percent, you know, it's always just one of those big things that actually happen and you're not preparing yourself for that, it's kind of like a big shocker," Noskova said.

The key thing, she said, was making sure she didn't treat the achievement of such a long-cherished goal as an ending but as a beginning.

"I had to tell myself that it is not the end of the world," Noskova said. "My career is not ending here, it is hopefully only starting.

"Winning a Grand Slam is an unreal thing. But at the same time, I'm still 21, I feel like since I accomplished this so soon, I feel like it's even a bigger motivation for me to keep going."

Noskova is in the bottom half of the draw anchored by second-seeded Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina, with fourth-seeded Coco Gauff looming in her quarter.

She'll face either qualifier Tatjana Maria or Caty McNally in her second-round opener and could come up against rising Philippines talent Alexandra Eala in the third round.

(W.Walker--TAG)