Muguruza Advances to Her First Australian Open Quarterfinal

Posted on January 22, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Garbiñe Muguruza is one step closer to another Grand Slam title.

The 23-year-old Spanish-Venezuelan tennis player has booked a maiden Australian Open quarterfinals berth, cruising to a straight-sets win over Romania’s Sorana Cirstea.

Muguruza, who defeated Serena Williams in the final of last year’s French Open, rarely looked troubled on her way to a 6-2, 6-3 victory in just more than an hour on Sunday night.

She’ll next face American Coco Vandeweghe, who beat world No. 1 Angelique Kerber.

“It was a very important match for me because this is the third time that I’m in the round of 16 and I never go through,” Muguruza said.

“It means a lot. I always come here very motivated. To be in the quarterfinals is such a great achievement and I’m so looking forward to keep winning.”

Muguruza was able to capitalize on 26 unforced errors from world No. 78 Cirstea, who sought a medical timeout during the second set for treatment of a wrist injury.

Muguruza said she had grown in confidence since claiming her first grand slam title at Roland Garros last year.

“I know grand slams are very important,” Muguruza said.

“When you win one, you have that self-confidence and that belief in yourself that you can do it again.”

Puig Beats Garbine Muguruza to Reach Quarterfinals at the 2016 Rio Games

Posted on August 10, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Monica Puig is one step closer to gold…

The 22-year-old Puerto Rican tennis player, competing in her first Olympics, routed French Open champion Garbine Muguruza 6-1, 6-1 on Tuesday to reach the 2016 Rio Games quarterfinals, notching the biggest win of her career.

“You just go in shock,” she said.

Even with the big lead, keeping it together through those last couple of games was tricky.

“You start getting emotional, and there’s no hiding it,” Puig said. “You start feeling those butterflies, those nerves. It’s all of that coming out.

Ranked 34th in the world, Puig has never reached the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam. Now she’s two wins from an Olympic medal.

She’ll face a player with a similar ranking for a spot in the semifinals: No. 32 Laura Siegemund, a 28-year-old German who is having a career year. Siegemund won her first WTA title at the Swedish Open last month.

At the 2013 French Open, Puig became the first woman representing Puerto Rico to reach the third round at a major in the Open era, which began in 1968. But at her first Olympics, her nationality takes on much more resonance.

“When I’m playing in the WTA, it’s more like I’m playing for myself — my job, let’s say,” she said. “Here, it’s not really my job. It’s for my country, and I think nothing in the world can compare to that. It’s the most special feeling when you put on your colors of your country and you’re walking around the Olympic Village and everybody looks to see your country on the back of your shirt.”

Muguruza is already a major champion. But after beating Serena Williams in the final at Roland Garros for her first Grand Slam title, the Spaniard lost in the second round at Wimbledon. She had 29 unforced errors to 15 winners on Tuesday.

Muguruza: The Higest-Seeded Latina at This Year’s Wimbledon

Posted on June 23, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

If all goes her way, Garbine Muguruza will most certainly get a rematch with Serena Williams in the Wimbledon finals…

The 22-year-old Spanish-Venezuelan professional tennis player, who lost to the World No. 1 tennis player 4-6, 4-6 in last year’s final, is seeded No. 2 for this year’s tournament at the All-England Club.

Muguruza, who bested Williams at the French Open to win the first Grand Slam title of her career, cannot face Serena, seeded No.1, until the final at Wimbledon, since they’re both in separate halves of the draw.

Seedings were based on the current world rankings but rearranged to reflect players’ grass-court achievements.

Muguruza is the highest-seeded Hispanic player on the women’s and men’s side. She’s followed by Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro at No. 13 and Caroline Garcia, who recently won her first-ever title on grass at the Mallorca Open, at No. 31.

Spain’s David Ferrer is the highest-seeded player on the men’s side at No. 13. He’s followed by Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut at No. 14, Spain’s Feliciano Lopez at No. 22 and Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas at No. 29.

Play at the third Grand Slam of the year starts Monday.

GENTLEMEN’S SINGLES
1 DJOKOVIC, Novak (SRB)
2 MURRAY, Andy (GBR)
3 FEDERER, Roger (SUI)
4 WAWRINKA, Stan (SUI)
5 NISHIKORI, Kei (JPN)
6 RAONIC, Milos (CAN)
7 GASQUET, Richard (FRA)
8 THIEM, Dominic (AUT)
9 CILIC, Marin (CRO)
10 BERDYCH, Tomas (CZE)
11 GOFFIN, David (BEL)
12 TSONGA, Jo-Wilfried (FRA)
13 FERRER, David (ESP)
14 BAUTISTA AGUT, Roberto (ESP)
15 KYRGIOS, Nick (AUS)
16 SIMON, Gilles (FRA)
17 MONFILS, Gael (FRA)
18 ISNER, John (USA)
19 TOMIC, Bernard (AUS)
20 ANDERSON, Kevin (RSA)
21 KOHLSCHREIBER, Philipp (GER)
22 LOPEZ, Feliciano (ESP)
23 KARLOVIC, Ivo (CRO)
24 ZVEREV, Alexander (GER)
25 TROICKI, Viktor (SRB)
26 PAIRE, Benoit (FRA)
27 SOCK, Jack (USA)
28 QUERREY, Sam (USA)
29 CUEVAS, Pablo (URU)
30 DOLGOPOLOV, Alexandr (UKR)
31 SOUSA, Joao (POR)
32 POUILLE, Lucas (FRA)

LADIES’ SINGLES
1 WILLIAMS, Serena (USA)
2 MUGURUZA, Garbine (ESP)
3 RADWANSKA, Agnieszka (POL)
4 KERBER, Angelique (GER)
5 HALEP, Simona (ROU)
6 AZARENKA, Victoria (BLR)
7 VINCI, Roberta (ITA)
8 BENCIC, Belinda (SUI)
9 WILLIAMS, Venus (USA)
10 KEYS, Madison (USA)
11 KVITOVA, Petra (CZE)
12 BACSINSZKY, Timea (SUI)
13 SUAREZ NAVARRO, Carla (ESP)
14 KUZNETSOVA, Svetlana (RUS)
15 STOSUR, Samantha (AUS)
16 PLISKOVA, Karolina (CZE)
17 KONTA, Johanna (GBR)
18 SVITOLINA, Elina (UKR)
19 STEPHENS, Sloane (USA)
20 CIBULKOVA, Dominika (SVK)
21 ERRANI, Sara (ITA)
22 PAVLYUCHENKOVA, Anastasia (RUS)
23 JANKOVIC, Jelena (SRB)
24 IVANOVIC, Ana (SRB)
25 STRYCOVA, Barbora (CZE)
26 BEGU, Irina-Camelia (ROU)
27 BERTENS, Kiki (NED)
28 VANDEWEGHE, Coco (USA)
29 SAFAROVA, Lucie (CZE)
30 KASATKINA, Daria (RUS)
31 GARCIA, Caroline (FRA)
32 MLADENOVIC, Kristina (FRA)

Muguruza Beats Serena Williams to Claim the French Open Title

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Garbiñe Muguruza has officially arrived…

The 22-year-old Spanish/Venezuelan tennis player defeated World No. 1 Serena Williams 7-5, 6-4 at the French Open on Saturday to claim her first-ever Grand Slam title.

Muguruza’s win prevented Williams from tying Steffi Graf‘s Open-era record of 22 Grand Slam titles for the third straight Grand Slam event.

In winning her first major, Muguruza used her powerful groundstrokes to keep Williams off-balance and overcame signs of nerves in the form of nine double-faults to pull off the upset win.

Muguruza also managed to deal with Williams’ dangerous serve, breaking three consecutive times from late in the first set to early in the second en route to beating Williams for the second time in three years at Roland Garros. In 2014, she handed Williams the worst loss of her Grand Slam career with a 6-2, 6-2 victory in the second round.

After letting four match points slip away in the penultimate game, Muguruza served out the match at love, punctuated by a high lob that caught the baseline as Williams watched.

The winning shot drew a smile from Williams’ face and she applauded Muguruza, who put her face in her hands and fell on her back in the red clay of Court Philippe Chatrier as her coach Sam Sumyk jumped from his chair and raised both arms in the air.

“She has a bright future, obviously,” said Williams, who at 34 is 12 years older than her Spanish opponent. “She knows how to play on the big stage and … clearly, she knows how to win Grand Slams.”

Muguruza, who lost to Williams in the 2015 final at Wimbledon, became the first Spanish woman to win a Grand Slam title since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario won the last of her three French Open crowns in 1998.

“I can’t explain with words what this day means to me,” Muguruza said after the match. “You work all your life to get here.”

Muguruza became just the fifth different woman to defeat Williams in a Grand Slam final, joining Angelique Kerber, Samantha Stosur, Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams — who beat her sister twice.

This year’s visit to Paris hardly could have started off more inauspiciously for Muguruza: She lost the very first set she played in the tournament, against 38th-ranked Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.

But Muguruza turned things around from there. She won the next 14 sets she played, displaying the deep groundstrokes and take-the-ball-early aggressiveness that flustered Williams.

“I have grown up playing on clay,” Muguruza said during the trophy ceremony, “so for Spain, and for me, this is amazing.”

Muguruza Defeats Samantha Stosur to Reach Her First-Ever French Open Final

Posted on June 3, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Garbiñe Muguruza is one step away from claiming her first Grand Slam title…

The 22-year-old Spanish/Venezuelan tennis player annihilated Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-4 to reach the final at the French Open, her second Grand Slam final in less than a year.

Muguruza was in outstanding form right from the get-go, racing to a 4-0 lead in the opening set before serving it out inside half an hour.

She broke again at the start of the second set, and despite Stosur breaking back she kept on taking the Australian’s serve apart to wrap up the win.

“I played very well until I led 5-2 in the second set and then she stepped up a gear and I became a bit nervous,” said Muguruza, who is looking to become the first Spanish woman to to lift the trophy at Roland Garros since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1998. “Emotions sometimes can be bad.”

Muguruza was seeded fourth going into the tournament, that seeding based largely on the rankings points she won by making it to her first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon last year.

She next faces Serena Williams, the woman she faced in the women’s final at Wimbledon. And, while it may seem like a daunting task getting past the World No. 1, Muguruza did defeat Williams at the French Open in 2014.

Muguruza Defeats Svetlana Kuznetsova to Reach Third Consecutive French Open Quarterfinal

Posted on May 29, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Make that three in a row for Garbine Muguruza…

The 22-year-old Spanish-Venezuelan tennis player defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth round to advance to the quarterfinals of the French Open for a third straight year.

The array of shots and maturity the No. 4 seed deployed in an intensely fought 6-3, 6-4 win against the 2009 champion strengthened the argument that Muguruza could soon be challenging Serena Williams for the top spot in women’s tennis.

Muguruza started at lightning pace, serving an ace with her first and third balls. In the last game, she stayed cool during five match points to finish off the 13th-seeded Russian.

Standing in the way of her second semifinal at a Grand Slam tournament is Shelby Rogers. The 108th-ranked American who’d never made it out of the third round at a major beat Irina-Camelia Begu 6-3, 6-4. The Romanian, seeded No. 25, is the third seeded player to fall to Shelby in her march to the quarterfinals.

Muguruza Upsets Agnieszka Radwanska at Wimbledon to Reach First Grand Slam Final

Posted on July 10, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Garbine Muguruza is experiencing real splendor in the grass…

The 21-year-old half-Spanish/half-Venezuelan tennis phenom has reached the first Wimbledon final of her career after stunning No. 13 seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 at the All-England Club.

Muguruza, who was playing in her first Grand Slam semi-final, showed few signs of nerves to claim a place in Saturday’s showdown against Serena Williams, who she defeated at the 2014 French Open.

Muguruza, the first Spanish woman to reach the finals at Wimbledon in 19 years, was the youngest of the four semifinalists but played with a maturity beyond her years. There were times when Radwanska had no answer to the world No 20’s consistent ball-striking.

Radwanska, whose previously disappointing year had been turned around by her upsurge of form on grass, was playing in her third semifinal here in the last four years, but the 2012 runner-up was frequently knocked out of her rhythm by Muguruza’s big ground strokes.

Radwanska was in trouble from the very first game, in which Muguruza converted her second break point. In the fifth game she broke again as Radwanska’s attempted drop shot landed in the net. When Radwanska served at 1-5 the Pole saved two break points, but in the following game Muguruza served out to love to take the opening set in just 34 minutes.

When Muguruza went 2-0 up at the start of the second set a swift finish looked likely, but Radwanska dug deep and quickly turned the momentum around. From 3-1 up Muguruza lost six games in a row as Radwanska leveled the match and struck the first blow in the deciding set.

The key to the second set was a tight game when Muguruza served at 2-3. Having fought back from 0-30 down, the Spaniard dropped serve for the first time in the match when Radwanska forced her into a forehand error. Two games later she was broken again and Radwanska went on to serve out for the set.

In the first game of the deciding set Muguruza saved a first break point with an ace but put a forehand long on the second. Radwanska was on a roll, but Muguruza responded in admirable fashion in the following game. Hitting a series of big returns, she broke to 15 to level at 1-1.

The set then went with serve until Muguruza broke to lead 4-2. At 15-40 the Spaniard won one of the points of the match. At the end of a thrilling rally, during which she hit a stunning defensive lob, Muguruza hit a decisive blow with a backhand winner.

Radwanska clung on to her serve in the next game but Muguruza was not to be denied and went on to serve out for victory. On Sunday she will attempt to become the first Spanish woman to win the title since Conchita Martinez in 1994.

Muguruza Reaches Wimbledon’s Round of 16 with Upset Win Over Angelique Kerber

Posted on July 4, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Garbine Muguruza has pulled off an All-England Club upset…

The 21-year-old Venezuelan-Spanish tennis player dismissed former Wimbledon semifinalist Angelique Kerber in three sets in a third-round match on Saturday.

Muguruza is no stranger to causing a Grand Slam shock, having claimed the biggest scalp of them all in beating Serena Williams at the French Open last year.

But she had no Wimbledon track record to speak of, making a 7-6 (14/12) 1-6 6-2 victory over German 10th seed Kerber particularly impressive.

The tie-break that settled the opening set on Court Two was finally won when Muguruza put away a drive volley and then, on the next point, pressured Kerber to plant a forehand wide.

The setback didn’t deter Kerber, who swiftly leveled the match, but she then let her playing standards slip in the decider, and dropped serve twice on her way out of the tournament.

Muguruza, whose only Wimbledon win in two previous visits came against Britain’s Anne Keothavong in 2013, has Caroline Wozniacki in her sights after the Dane breezed through to the last 16.

Their clash on Monday was confirmed by Wozniacki’s 6-2 6-2 victory against Italian Camila Giorgi on Court One.

Wozniacki, the former world number one, has never been beyond the fourth round at Wimbledon, and will be aiming to avoid a fifth defeat at that stage when she tackles Muguruza.

Suarez Navarro Defeats Andrea Petkovic to Reach Miami Open Final

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Carla Suarez Navarro is heading into the top 10 in the WTA world rankings…

The 26-year-old Spanish tennis player defeated Germany’s Andrea Petkovic in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3, on Thursday to reach the final of the Miami Open.

With the win, Suarez Navarro, who is now poised to break into the top 10 in the world rankings, has become the first Spanish woman in more than two decades to reach the final at the Crandon Park Tennis Center.

The last Spaniard to play for the trophy at the Miami Open was two-time champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1993. The Spaniard beat Steffi Graf in that final.

Suarez Navarro, who defeated Venus Williams in the quarterfinals, now faces another Williams: seven-time Miami Open winner Serena Williams.

Williams is bidding to win a third straight Miami title and has won her last 17 matches at the venue.

Suarez Navarro, who honed her game in the Canary Islands, came out on top in a loose match, combining with Petkovic for nearly 60 unforced errors in less than 90 minutes on court.

Suarez Navarro converted three of her 10 break point opportunities and was never in serious trouble.

“I played a good match, an important match like this is difficult,” said the winner. “I just tried to play my game and enjoy it.

“Playing this final is an important event for me. I train in the off season in hopes of playing a final like this,” added the Spaniard, whose only WTA title came in Portugal last year.

“I am playing good, I’m playing good matches here.”

Muguruza Pulls Off Upset Win Over Simona Halep at Wuhan Open

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Tom Castaneda

Garbine Muguruza’s list of upset victories is growing…

The 20-year-old half-Spanish-half-Venezuelan tennis player stunned second-seeded Simona Halep by beating her at China’s Wuhan Open on Tuesday, coming back for a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory in the second round.

Muguruza, who beat top-ranked Serena Williams in the second round at this year’s French Open, dropped the first set in 35 minutes but won the first four games of the second set and the last four games of the third to advance at the inaugural tournament.

Muguruza, currently ranked No. 22 in the world, next faces Elina Svitolina in the third round.

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