Garbine Muguruza Named Tournament Director of 2024 WTA Finals Riyadh

Posted on June 27, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Garbine Muguruza may be retired from professional play, but she hasn’t left the tennis world.

The 30-year-old Spanish-Venezuelan former professional tennis player, a former Wimbledon and French Open champion, has been named the WTA Finals tournament director, making her the first ex-player to take the helm of the season-ender, which will be held in Riyadh from this year.

Earlier in 2024, Riyadh secured a three-year deal to host the season finale that features the top eight singles players and doubles teams, replacing last year’s hosts in Cancun, Mexico.

Muguruza will work with the WTA, the Saudi Tennis Federation and Ministry of Sport on strategic planning and delivery, as well as helping grow the profile of tennis in the Middle East, the elite women’s governing body said.

“I feel very privileged to be able to contribute to the future of this great sport,” Muguruza said in a statement. “I know how special this event is for our top players and I’ve also seen its potential to inspire communities all over the world.

“I’m excited to work with a great team to present a showcase for women’s tennis that not only grows tennis but encourages all fans, and especially girls and women, to pursue their dreams.”

The former world No. 1, who won the French Open in 2016, Wimbledon in 2017 and the WTA Finals in 2021, retired at age 30 in April.

This year’s WTA Finals will run from November 2-9.

Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in sports such as soccer, Formula One and golf in the past few years while critics accuse the kingdom of using its Public Investment Fund to “sportswash” its human rights record.

The country denies accusations of human rights abuses and says it protects its national security through its laws.

WTA chief Steve Simon said last year that Saudi Arabia presented “big issues” as a host for women’s tour events but also acknowledged the progress it had made and continued to engage with players before the WTA Finals deal was struck.

There had also been pushback from tennis greats Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, who said the WTA’s values were in contrast to those of Saudi Arabia.

Garbine Muguruza Announces Retirement from Professional Tennis

Posted on April 21, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

Garbine Muguruza is putting away her rackets…

The 30-year-old Spanish-Venezuelan tennis player, a two-time major champion and former World No. 1, has announced that she’s retiring from professional tennis at after an extended time away from the court.

“I feel that it is time to retire and open up a new chapter in my life,” Muguruza said at a news conference in Madrid on Saturday.

Muguruza beat Serena Williams in the 2016 French Open final and Venus Williams in the 2017 Wimbledon final, making her the only player to defeat each Williams sister in a Grand Slam title match.

The Spanish player earned 10 career titles and was also the runner-up at 2015 Wimbledon and the 2020 Australian Open.

She earned nearly $25 million in prize money — 13th on the all-time list — and finished with a win-loss record of 449-238.

Her last important victory was the 2021 WTA Finals.

Muguruza has not played since January 2023.

In April that year, she announced she was extending her hiatus from playing and said, “Spending time with my family and friends [has] really been healthy and amazing.”

Born in Caracas to a Spanish father and Venezuelan mother, Muguruza moved to Barcelona when she was a child to continue her tennis training.

She became the first Spanish woman to lift a Grand Slam trophy since Arantxa Sánchez Vicario at the 1998 French Open.

Beatriz Haddad Maia Defeats Iga Swiatek to Notch First Win vs. Top-Ranked Player

Posted on August 11, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Beatriz Haddad Maia has taken down the World No. 1…

The 26-year-old Brazilian tennis player defeated top-ranked Iga Swiatek of Poland 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in windy conditions on Thursday to reach the National Bank Open quarterfinals.

Haddad Maia beat a top-ranked player for the first time to become the first Brazilian woman to advance to the quarterfinal of a WTA 1000 tournament.

A back-to-back champion on the grass in Nottingham and Birmingham, she came to Toronto at a career-high 24th in the world.

“I had a lot of tough moments in my career,” Haddad Maia said. “I have already had four surgeries and I’m only 26 years old. So when I have special moments I try to enjoy. ”

Swiatek had nine double faults to one for Haddad Maia.

“Right now it’s hard to say if it was more her game or the wind that really messed up my first set,” Swiatek said. “I think she just used the conditions better than me. When she was playing with the wind she was playing really strong balls and sometimes I was late for them.”

Haddad Maia will face Belinda Bencic of Switzerland in the quarterfinals. Bencic followed her victory over Serena Williams on Wednesday night by beating eighth-seeded Garbine Muguruza of Spain 6-1, 6-3 in the late match.

Leylah Fernandez Outlasts Camila Osorio to Claim Second Straight Monterrey Open Title

Posted on March 7, 2022 by Tom Castaneda

Leylah Fernandez is a repeat defender…

The 19-year-old half-Ecuadorian Canadian tennis player outlasted Colombia’s Camila Osorio in an absolutely thrilling final at the Monterrey Open on Sunday night, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (3), to win the WTA 250 hard-court event for the second year in a row.

Fernandez has to fight off five match points late in the third set to win the tournament.

Fernandez has now won her last 10 matches in a row in Monterrey, 17 of her last 20 matches in Mexico and 19 of her last 24 matches in North America.

There were all kinds of momentum swings throughout the two-hour, 52-minute battle, including right from the get-go, as Fernandez stormed out to a 3-0 lead after just eight minutes on court, eventually extending that to 5-2—but an increasingly determined Osorio clawed back to take the opening set in a tie-break.

Fernandez got back on track in the second set, building a 4-1, double-break lead. Osorio began building another comeback, getting one break back, but Fernandez held onto the other one and ended up serving it out to take it to a decider.

After Fernandez broke in the first game of the third set, Osorio won four games in a row to build a 4-1 lead, then Fernandez came back to 4-all, and that’s when the tension reached its peak—Fernandez staved off five match points, one serving to stay in the match at 4-5 and another four serving to stay in the match at 5-6, the last one coming after a 15-minute-plus delay after several lights in the stadium went out.

But once the lights came back on Fernandez came alive one last time, winning 10 of the last 13 points to close it out, ripping a flurry of forehand winners along the way.

At the end of the day, Fernandez’s numbers were just a bit tidier than Osorio’s—she finished with 15 more winners, 44 to 29, to only 9 more unforced errors, 60 to 51.

Fernandez won her second WTA Tour title, having also won Monterrey last year. She’s the third woman in the 14-year history of the event to win it in back-to-back years, after Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (2010-2011) and Garbine Muguruza (2018-2019).

She had also come back from the brink of defeat in the second round earlier in the week—she was two points away from losing serving to stay in the match at 5-6 in the third set against China’s Zheng Qinwen before winning that one, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (3).

Despite the narrow loss in the final, it was a great week for the 20-year-old Osorio, who reached her third WTA final—her first two came last year, winning Bogota and finishing runner-up in Tenerife. She also got the second-biggest win of her career along the way, beating No. 15-ranked Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals—her biggest win also came against Svitolina, when the Ukrainian was No. 6 in Tenerife last year.

The 20-year-old Colombian now rises from No. 44—which was already her career-high—to a new career-high of No. 35 on the new WTA rankings.

On this day a year ago, she was ranked No. 185.

Garbine Muguruza Becomes First Spaniard to Win WTA Finals Title

Posted on November 18, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Garbine Muguruza is ending the year with a bang…

The 28-year-old Spanish Venezuelan tennis player defeated Anett Kontaveit 6-3, 7-5 to win the WTA Finals title for the first time in her career and improve her record playing in Mexico to 14 wins and two losses.

Muguruza, who won back-to-back titles in Monterrey in northern Mexico in 2018 and 2019, became the first Spaniard to win the women’s season-ending tournament.

Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario was a runner-up two times, the last time in 1993.

Muguruza’s past successes in Mexico motivated her to play in the WTA Finals. In the ceremony after winning the title, she recalled telling WTA CEO Steve Simon at the US Open that she wanted to play again south of the Rio Grande.

“To qualify, the whole year with my team, I was saying to them, ‘It’s in Mexico, we have to make it, c’mon.’ It was my biggest motivation,” Muguruza said.

The former No. 1-ranked Muguruza, who was a semifinalist in the WTA Finals in 2015, also became the oldest champion since Serena Williams won it in 2014 and will finish the season at No. 3 in the rankings, her best performance since 2017.

Muguruza was backed the whole week by a raucous crowd who gathered at Estadio Akron to cheer and clap for her as if she were one of their own.

“It’s funny, the other day I was speaking with my manager. … He was like, ‘You know what, for the first time, Garbine, you’re really using the crowd, really getting that energy and using it on the court. You should do that more often,'” said Muguruza, who entered the Estadio Akron wearing a Mexico soccer team jersey for her last two matches.

“I think a big lesson to me is I should get the energy from the environment. I’m very supported here in Mexico. I don’t know if it will be everywhere, but I used it this week for sure.”

Despite the loss, Kontaveit, who moved from No. 30 in the rankings into the top 10 in the past few months, is projected to finish at No. 7 in the rankings.

Muguruza took control early in the match with three breaks against an erratic Kontaveit, who played better in the second and got a break in the ninth, but the Spaniard broke the Estonian’s next two serves to win it.

The WTA Finals were played in Guadalajara for this year only, with the event scheduled to return in 2022 to Shenzhen, China.

Garbine Muguruza Defeats Paula Badosa to Reach First-Ever WTA Finals Title Match

Posted on November 16, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

It’s a special first for Garbine Muguruza…

The 28-year-old Spanish professional tennis player dominated compatriot Paula Badosa in a 6-3, 6-3 victory on Tuesday and will now play for the WTA Finals title for the first time in her career.

The sixth-seeded Muguruza, who lost in the semifinals in 2015, is the first Spaniard to reach the singles final since 1993, when Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario was runner-up to Steffi Graff.

“I’m very happy with my performance, it was the best match I played here in Guadalajara,” Muguruza said. “It’s the first time we encountered each other. I’m very proud of Paula, she started the year back in the rankings and made all the way to the top 10.”

Muguruza now has a 13-2 record on Mexican soil, where she won back-to-back titles in Monterrey in 2018 and ’19.

Muguruza awaits the winner of eighth-seeded Anett Kontaveit and fourth-seeded Maria Sakkari, who play the other semifinal match later at the Centro Panamericano de Tenis in Zapopan, a suburb of Guadalajara.

Muguruza started the season-ending tournament with a loss to third-seeded Karolina Pliskova but bounced back with victories over second-seeded Barbora Krejcikova, Kontaveit and Badosa.

“I don’t feel like a favorite, maybe on paper or for the TV, but I don’t feel like it,” she said. “I started here losing and I thought that I could be eliminated, so for me to say that I feel like a favorite for the final is complicated.”

Muguruza reached 41 victories this season, her most in a single campaign since 2017 when she finished with 45.

Muguruza broke the seventh-seeded Badosa in the third game and then held to win the first set in 35 minutes.

In the second set, Muguruza had a break in the second game, saved a couple of break points in the third and never looked back.

Badosa, who turned 24 on Monday, was the youngest player in the semifinals. The Spaniard finished a breakthrough season that saw her crack the top 10 for the first time in her career.

“It was a tough day, I did not feel myself and she played good, all the credits go to her,” said Badosa, who earlier in the tournament said that Muguruza was her inspiration. “I don’t really know what happened today. I’m sad that I could not compete.”

The WTA Finals are being played in Guadalajara for this year only, with the event scheduled to return in 2022 to Shenzhen, China.

Leylah Fernandez to Compete at This Year’s Billie Jean King Cup Finals

Posted on October 4, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Leylah Fernandez is gearin’ up for a special cup…

The 19-year-old half-Ecuadorian Canadian tennis sensation and U.S. Open finalist is among the players named to the 12 teams at next month’s Billie Jean King Cup Finals.

Fernandez will play for Canada in the competition.

But she isn’t the only Latina set to play in the Cup.

Two-time Grand Slam champion Garbiñe Muguruza will play for Spain along with Carla Suarez Navarro.

Meanwhile, Caroline Garcia is set to play for defending champion France, alongside her teammates Alize Cornet and Fiona Ferro, who were all part of the group that won the event in 2019. The 2020 edition was called off because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Matches will be played in Prague on Nov. 1-6.

The host Czech Republic will be led by 2021 French Open singles and doubles champion Barbora Krejcikova.

She is joined by Marketa Vondrousova, the 2019 French Open runner-up and the 2020 Tokyo Games singles silver medalist, and Katerina Siniakova, who was Krejcikova’s doubles partner for three Grand Slam doubles titles and a gold medal at the Summer Games.

Sloane Stephens is joined by Jessica Pegula, Danielle Collins, CoCo Vandeweghe and Caroline Dolehide on the U.S. roster.

Garbine Muguruza Outlasts Ons Jabeur to Claim Chicago Fall Tennis Classic Title

Posted on October 4, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Garbine Muguruza is celebrating a new title…

The 27-year-old Spanish-Venezuelan professional tennis player rallied to beat Ons Jabeur 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 on Sunday in the Chicago Fall Tennis Classic for her second WTA Tour victory of the season and ninth overall.

“I had to be very strong mentally,” Muguruza said. “I suffered that first set, that it didn’t go my way. I just said, ‘OK, this is tennis. I’ve got another set and if I win it, I have another opportunity.’ I definitely gave it all.”

The ninth-ranked Muguruza also won the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in March.

Jabeur, ranked 16th, broke Muguruza’s serve in the fourth game of the opening set, and took the set on a sliced backhand winner from behind the baseline.

After Jabeur broke Mugurzua’s serve again early in the second set to go up 3-2, Muguruza broke back to level it up, then won the next three games to win the set.

In the third set, Muguruza won the first 10 points and broke Jabeur’s serve three times.

“It was the final, the moment you have to give everything in the tank,” Muguruza said. “Forcing that decider set gave me all the energy to kind of jump in the score and dominate that third set.”

Muguruza boosted her chances to qualify for the WTA Finals in Guadalajara, Mexico in November. After entering the weekend ranked No. 9 in the world, she will rise to No. 6 in the new WTA Rankings. The top eight players on the tour qualify.

From Tunisia, Jabeur became the first Arab tournament winner in WTA history in June at Birmingham, England. She has a WTA Tour-high 44 match victories this season.

Garbine Muguruza Defeats Barbora Krejcikova to Claim Dubai Championships Title

Posted on March 14, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Garbine Muguruza is a titleholder once again…

The 27-year-old Spanish-Venezuelan professional tennis player and former world No. 1 has ended her almost two-year wait for a title with a 7-6 (6), 6-3 win against Barbora Krejcikova in the final of the Dubai Championships on Saturday.

“It means a lot,” the ninth-seeded Muguruza said, “it’s never easy to win.”

In her third attempt at a title this season, the former No. 1 hit seven aces and saved seven of the nine break points she faced to beat Czech doubles specialist Krejcikova.

It’s her first title since winning in Monterrey in April 2019. Muguruza lost the Qatar Open final last week to Petra Kvitova and the Yarra Valley Classic final last month to Ash Barty.

Overall, it’s Muguruza’s eighth career singles title, including two Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros in 2016 and Wimbledon in 2017.

Garbine Muguruza Defeats Simona Halep to Reach First Australian Open Final

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Garbine Muguruzais one win away from her third Grand Slamtitle…

In a battle of former World No. 1 players, the 26-year-old Spanish-Venezuelan tennis playerbeat No. 4 seed Simona Halepin straight sets on Thursday to reach the Australian Openfinal for the first time.

Muguruza’s 7-6 (8), 7-5 victory sends her to the title match against 14th-seeded Sofia Keninof the United States. Kenin beat No. 1 Ash Barty7-6 (6), 7-5.

Muguruza, unseeded at Melbourne Park, fended off four set points in the opener of her semifinal and wound up defeating Halep in a matchup of players who’ve won Wimbledonand the French Openbut not the Australian Open.

It was a streaky contest: Muguruza led 5-3 in the first set before Halep took 15 of 17 points to earn a pair of set points. Muguruza then took seven consecutive points. And so on, until Halep put a shot in the net to relinquish that set, then smashed her racket and sat on the sideline, shaking her head.

“I wasn’t thinking I was down,” Muguruza said. “You keep going.”Muguruza may have won the French Open in 2016 and Wimbledon in 2017, but she came to Melbourne Park as an unseeded player at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in six years.

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