Psychologists use the term to describe the way people often seek baseless connections and patterns between random events. Conspiracy theories would be one example. Garbiñe Muguruza’s April announcement that she would be prolonging her two-month break from tennis into the summer, skipping the clay- and grass-court seasons, would be another.

No sooner had Muguruza revealed the news on social media, than observers were rushing to join the dots. In an instant, the Spanish former world No 1 and two-time grand slam champion was cast as the latest in an illustrious line of top female players to fall out of love with the sport. In turning her back on tennis, Muguruza was following in the footsteps of Naomi Osaka, Ashleigh Barty, Serena Williams and Simona Halep, it was claimed.

Never mind that Osaka, Barty and, as we now know, Williams are all expecting children. Never mind that Barty and Williams have retired, or that Halep is appealing a provisional suspension from the game after being charged with a double doping offence. Women’s tennis was in crisis, we were told, with the growing absence of star attractions depriving the WTA Tour of the intriguing plotlines that attract sponsorship and fans. 

It seemed an awful lot to extrapolate from a couple of brief sentences on Instagram.

“Spending time with family and friends and it’s really been healthy and amazing, so I am going to lengthen this period till summer,” wrote Muguruza.

“Therefore I am going to miss the clay and grass court season.”

In fact, Muguruza’s decision, which followed 15 months of mediocre results, hardly came as a surprise, even before last month’s announcement that she is engaged to Arthur Borges, her partner of two years. 

The former Wimbledon and French Open champion hadn’t played since 30 January, when she was eliminated from the Lyon Open in straight sets by the rising Czech teenager Linda Noskova. The result did not qualify as an upset. Muguruza was ranked 82nd at the time – 26 places below Noskova – and has since fallen to 170 as a result of her inactivity, her worst ranking in more than a decade. 

The Spaniard’s downward spiral began after her inspired title run at the season-ending WTA Finals in Guadalajara in 2021. When Muguruza declared herself ready to challenge at the majors again following that victory, it did not seem fanciful. The manner in which she secured her biggest title in four years, shrugging off an indifferent start to the group stage to capitalise on the “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” of playing a big tournament in Latin America, spoke of a player with newfound clarity about herself, her game and her goals. 

Not for the first time in Muguruza’s career, however, the promised end failed to materialise. Instead, she won only a dozen of her 29 matches last year, failing to notch up more than two victories in a row at any tournament.

“It’s been a tough season, a little bit of a rollercoaster,” she said after defeating Despina Papamichail at last September’s Tokyo Open. “I [have been] trying and trying and trying… at some point I think that I will get rewarded.”

Again, Muguruza’s optimism would prove misplaced. That win over Papamichail remains her most recent, the Spaniard having lost in the opening round of each of the four tournaments she has contested this year.  

“I’m feeling the toll of many years on tour,” she reflected at last year’s US Open. 

Clearly something had to give. A player of Muguruza’s talent and standing could not simply plough on, accumulating loss after dispiriting loss. If a few months away from the relentless treadmill of the tour is what she needs to rediscover her energy and passion for the game, so be it. But let’s not pretend that decision has precipitated a crisis.

The women’s game would benefit from a fit and firing Muguruza, of course it would. At her best, the charismatic Spaniard is one of the sport’s finest ball-strikers. But the Muguruza who went off on sabbatical at the end of January is not that player right now, and hasn’t been for some time. In fact, consistency has never been her forte. As her results over the years suggest, Muguruza is a player for the big occasion; the week in, week out grind of the tour, not so much.

New rivalries and new blood

So while she will be missed this summer, women’s tennis is not about to implode in Muguruza’s absence. On the contrary. In the period since her WTA Finals victory, countless fascinating plotlines have emerged. Iga Swiatek dominated last season to establish herself as the undisputed world No 1, a position she underlined this month with a successful title defence at Roland Garros. Elena Rybakina won Wimbledon, defeating the ever-popular Ons Jabeur, who also reached the final of the US Open. Muguruza’s WTA Finals crown passed to Caroline Garcia, another 29-year-old enjoying a late-career resurgence. 

In January, Aryna Sabalenka defeated Rybakina in a thrilling Australian Open final to join the Kazakh as a first-time grand slam champion. In Indian Wells, Rybakina hit back to deny the Belarusian another big crown, repeating her win over Swiatek at Melbourne Park along the way. Jessica Pegula, who scored a similarly emphatic victory over the Polish world No 1 at the start of the year, looks closer than ever to a major breakthrough. 

Exciting young talents have emerged like Noskova – who began the season by defeating Daria Kasatkina, Victoria Azarenka and Jabeur to reach the first WTA final of her career in Adelaide – and her compatriot Linda Fruhvirtova, also 18, who marked her Australian Open debut with a run to the last 16. As for the old guard, how about former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova winning her first Miami Open at the age of 32? 

Detractors of the women’s game tend to portray this strength in depth as weakness. Where are the rivalries, they ask, the big names who define the sport and create the kind of storylines provided by Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer on the men’s side? The obvious answer lies in the burgeoning three-way rivalry between Swiatek, Sabalenka and Rybakina. Sure, the critics will say, but those players lack the bankability of Muguruza, Osaka, Barty and company, all of whom come from big markets with big commercial pull. 

Again, that rather overlooks the fact that many of the sport’s greatest champions – Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles and Justine Henin among them – hailed from smaller countries. Nor did a Swiss passport seem to harm Federer’s popularity, for the simple reason that commercial clout owes more to quality and charisma than nationality. 

So while Muguruza may have left the sport for the time being and, for all we know, taken her 887,000 Instagram disciples with her, Swiatek, with her 1 million-strong following, has ably filled the void. So too has Coco Gauff, the American world No 7, with 887,000 followers. That Sabalenka hails from Belarus, a far smaller market than Australia, has not prevented her from amassing more devotees than Barty (619k to 526k). And while Osaka, with 2.7 million fans, is always sorely missed, the presence of the convalescent Emma Raducanu, a fellow former US Open champion with 2.5 million Instagram acolytes, will no doubt afford the WTA’s marketing department more than a measure of solace.

It might be argued that social media presence alone is a less reliable indicator of marketability than factors like success and personal values. Yet, with the exception of Gauff – who, at the age of 19, has time on her side – each of the aforementioned athletes is a grand slam champion. 

Swiatek and Gauff, in particular, have shown a refreshing willingness to speak out on social and political issues, from the Ukraine war and mental health in the Pole’s case, to gun violence, women’s reproductive rights and racial injustice in Gauff’s. It is hard to imagine better role models. As for marketability, Raducanu, whose sponsorship portfolio is estimated to be worth in excess of £10m annually, has shown what can be achieved with a big title and a winning personality. 

Strength in numbers

There are a number of reasons why the women’s game is struggling to make the numbers add up, not least the WTA’s now-reversed decision to pull out of a lucrative series of events in China over allegations by Peng Shuai, a former world No 1 doubles player, that she was forced into a sexual relationship with a former Chinese government official. 

What seems equally clear, though, is that the problem lies less with individual athletes like Mugurza than with the way they have been marketed. Which is precisely why the WTA has entered into a $150m (£118m) commercial partnership with CVC Capital Partners, a global private equity firm, aimed at improving the profile and profitability of the organisation and its stars. Under the terms of the deal, CVC will acquire a 20% stake in WTA Ventures, a new business arm of the WTA. Improved commercial rights – and parity with the ATP on prize money – will be high on the agenda. 

CVC previously transformed the fortunes of Formula One, making billions for the sport – and itself – in the process. In 2021, the company spent roughly $700m to acquire the Indian Premier League cricket franchise Ahmedabad; in 2022, the IPL sold its media rights for a record $6.2bn, triple the value of the previous deal. In short, CVC are not noted for backing losing propositions. CVC’s recognition of the commercial potential of the women’s game, and willingness to back that recognition with big bucks, says more about the true value of the WTA than any number of cheap shots. 

And yes, of course they’ll be looking to make money along the way. That tends to be how private equity firms work. But the opportunity is there to grow the game not only for investors, but also for the benefit of male and female players alike. According to estimates, tennis has about a billion followers worldwide – and generates roughly double that amount in dollars. Yet there is a chasm between the sport’s appeal and the money it pulls in, both for itself and – even in an era of all-time greats like Williams and Rafael Nadal – its stars. 

By way of comparison, American football generates an estimated $18bn annually from a fanbase roughly half the size. Baseball and basketball, meanwhile, both of which have a following of roughly 400 million people, bring in an estimated $10bn a year each. No wonder venture capitalists are united in the belief that tennis is ripe for long-term investment. 

Part of CVC’s strategy will reportedly involve forging closer ties with the ATP Tour, eventually enabling the sport to sell itself as a combined package. No doubt cynics will point to this as further evidence that the women’s game is “in crisis”. 

An alternative view would be that there is strength in numbers; that by presenting a united front, tennis will be better placed to capitalise on its position as a sport with a rich and storied tradition of combining men’s and women’s events at its biggest, most historic tournaments. 

That tradition does not rest on one player – be it Muguruza or anyone else.

The post Muguruza’s sabbatical a crisis for women’s tennis? Get real appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Mundanity is anathema at the best of times to Cornet, an ebullient, emotionally complex character who, by her own admission, has spent much of her career chasing the rainbow of perfection. And against Garbiñe Muguruza at the Australian Open, the Frenchwoman did indeed make life interesting, sealing a 6-3, 6-3 victory over the third seed just minutes after the Danish teenager Clara Tauson had bundled out Anett Kontaveit, the high-flying Estonian who Muguruza vanquished to win the WTA Finals barely two months ago.

Plus ça change, as they say in Cornet’s homeland. The women’s game remains as thrillingly unpredictable as ever.

Few players embody that sense of uncertainty quite like Cornet, a player who has struggled to realise the spectacular potential she showed as a teenager, but whose ability and staying power remain undeniable.

Now into her 17th and perhaps final year as a professional, the 31-year-old has appeared in 60 consecutive grand slam tournaments – more than any other active female player, and just two short of the women’s record held by Ai Sugiyama. On the game’s biggest stages, however, consistency of appearance has not always been matched by consistency of performance. For all the mercurial talent that propelled Cornet to the junior French Open title as a 17-year-old, and lifted her to a career-high ranking of 11th in the world two years later, it is a curious footnote to her career that she has never progressed beyond the fourth round of a major. It is a modest return for a player who is, as Muguruza will not need reminding after suffering a second successive defeat at her hands, capable of troubling anyone in the world on her day.

“It’s been a while [that] I haven’t beaten a top-five player in a slam, so it’s a really good feeling,” said Cornet, who memorably shocked top seed Serena Williams in the third round of Wimbledon in 2014. “I really enjoyed it today, which doesn’t mean I will enjoy it tomorrow! That’s why, when the fun is here, you have to take it.  

“There were definitely some tough times during my career, but I think it’s the same for everybody. Like everybody, I wanted to quit tennis many times, because sometimes it’s just too painful to work and not to be rewarded for your work, to have tough losses. Sometimes you lose, for example, with match point. You go back to your hotel room and you go, ‘What’s the point of doing all that?’ 

“This is not an easy job. You’re on the road basically 10 months out of 12, so you never see your family, it’s really hard to have a love life. I mean, all these things around tennis make it complicated. But the love of the game has always been stronger. 

“I think today the key was that, you know, I’m telling myself that I’m playing probably my last year. I’m not sure yet. When I stepped on the court, I was like, ‘You know what, just enjoy the moment, because you don’t know if you’re going to come back.’ I think that’s what made the difference.”

Cornet’s freedom of spirit was apparent from the outset as she adopted a position high on the baseline, taking the ball early and going toe-to-toe with the Spaniard. Muguruza cut a contrastingly anxious figure, her plight epitomised by a woeful start to her opening service game, in which she twice landed groundstrokes halfway up the net and sent a regulation forehand sailing beyond the baseline. Had Cornet converted more than one of the 10 break points she held in the opener, a one-break advantage might quickly have become a rout. As it was, Muguruza fought gallantly but in vain to make up ground, retaining scoreline respectability without ever suggesting she had enough on the day to avert the biggest upset of the tournament so far. Cornet will face Tamara Zidansek, the 29th seed, in the third round.

“It’s a tough day,” said Muguruza, whose preparations for the tournament were thrown into disarray after her team contracted Covid. “I didn’t feel my game at all. My serve wasn’t there. I think my shots weren’t there also. Tactically, I wasn’t making the right decisions. 

“On top of that, she played very well, [a] very solid game. I think she plays better when she’s playing against top players. I’m a little bit surprised about my level – a little disappointed, too.”

Kontaveit, who unexpectedly emerged as a beacon of stability in the women’s game towards the end of last season after claiming titles in Cleveland, Ostrava, Moscow and Cluj-Napoca to break the top 10 and qualify for the WTA Finals, will know how the Spaniard feels. For all her recent exploits, a quarter-final at Melbourne Park three years ago remains the Estonian’s best showing at a major, and her hopes of improving on that record were in the balance from the moment Tauson drilled a sweetly-struck backhand winner to break in the opening game. It was the opening salvo in a barrage that would leave Kontaveit stunned.

“My weapons were obviously working very well,” said the 39th-ranked Tauson, who smoked 20 winners to Kontaveit’s 15 and made 14 fewer unforced errors. 

“When you play really good, you don’t feel like you’re playing amazing, but everything is just going how you want it. In my mind, that’s just how I want to play every time. I think I played a really, really good match today. I didn’t miss a lot of shots, even though I was going for them on every single shot.”

It was, said the 19-year-old, a victory underpinned by belief, a quality she felt she lacked last year when facing Victoria Azarenka at the French Open and Ashleigh Barty at Flushing Meadows. Her coach, Olivier Jeunehomme, was determined it would not happen again.

“I had a little talk with my coach right before the match, where we talked about [how] I have to go in believing I could win,” said Tauson following the first top-10 win of her career. 

“Last year, I don’t think I really believed that I could beat those players. Now, right before the match, he told me: ‘You have to believe you can win. We’ll see what the result says, but you have to believe it.’ I really did. I think that really helped me a lot.”

Tauson, who won the junior title at Melbourne Park in 2019, will now face former semi-finalist Danielle Collins, who beat her at Roland Garros a couple of years ago. “She’s a good player,” she said of the American 27th seed. “She always goes far in the good tournaments. So we’ll see. I have to play good again, so I hope I can do that.”

The post Muguruza and Kontaveit fall as age proves no barrier at Australian Open appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Strict quarantine requirements in her native Queensland meant that, had Barty chosen to defend her title in Mexico, it would probably have been December by the time she made it home. Instead, while her rivals grappled with flying balls and failing breath in the high-altitude conditions of Guadalajara, Barty was finally able to sit back with family and friends and reflect on a stellar season. Six months on the road had brought a career-best five titles – most notably at Wimbledon, where she ended a 41-year wait for an Australian women’s champion – and a third successive year-end No 1 crown. 

Now, after a solid pre-season and a winning start to the year in Adelaide, where she won both the singles and doubles titles, Barty goes into her home slam lightly raced and ready to face the challenge of becoming the first woman since Christine O’Neil in 1978 to lift the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup. Not that she will lose any sleep if things don’t work out.

“I can’t do any more than try,” says Barty, whose best performance at Melbourne Park came two years ago, when she reached the semi-finals. 

“That’s all I can do. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. I just have to hope that everyone understands I’m giving it my best crack. It doesn’t always work out exactly how you want to. But you go about it the right way, you do the right things and try and give yourself the best chance. That’s all you can do.”

If she is to improve on last year’s unexpected quarter-final defeat to Karolina Muchova, Barty – who will play the Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko in her opener – will first need to get past Naomi Osaka, the defending champion, whom she is scheduled to meet in the fourth round.

After taking a four-month break following September’s shock defeat to Leylah Fernandez at the US Open, Osaka marked her return with an impressive run in Melbourne last week before an abdominal injury forced her to withdraw from her semi-final against Veronika Kudermetova. Happy and excited, she says, to be back at the scene of two of her four grand slam victories, the 24-year-old remains the player to beat on hard courts.

“Playing in the Australian Open means a lot to me,” says the 13th-seeded Osaka, who will open her title defence against Colombia’s Camila Osorio Serrano.

“It’s not the first slam that I won, but I feel like starting the year off here really kind of builds momentum throughout the year. I also think there’s like a different feeling I get when I come to Australia. Everyone is really warm and welcoming. I just remember all the tough battles that I’ve had here.  It’s definitely a very positive feeling.”

Another player with a revitalised outlook is Garbiñe Muguruza. The Spanish third seed comes into the tournament buoyed by last season’s brilliant run to the WTA Finals title, and with a renewed sense of clarity about her game and goals. Her decision to pull out of Adelaide suggests she has learned from the experience of two years ago, when she played tournaments on two different continents in the build-up to the Australian Open, falling ill in the process, before running out of steam in the final against Sofia Kenin. This time around she is rested and ready.

“I really focused on getting the needed rest [in the off-season], because you’re not losing your tennis,” says Muguruza, who was beaten by Daria Kasatkina in the quarter-finals of this week’s Sydney Tennis Classic. “I think you prioritise getting back the energy, refreshing the mindset and everything. 

“I skipped Adelaide. I normally like to play the first tournament of the year, but I felt like in these circumstances why not go to Sydney. I’m adapting really, every week, to what I feel.”

Muguruza’s willingness to trust to instinct offers a further indication of her renewed belief. Drawn in the same quarter as sixth seed Anett Kontaveit, the Estonian whom she beat twice at the WTA Finals – and who will no doubt be nursing a few psychological scars after missing seven match points against Barbora Krejcikova in Sydney – the 28-year-old has the air of a player who feels her best years lie ahead. 

After her WTA Finals win, her most significant title in four years, Muguruza spoke of how she had never stopped believing she could still produce the tennis that earned her the French Open and Wimbledon titles. Contemplating her opener against Clara Burel of France, the world No 77, she returned to the theme. 

“I feel a lot of emotions when I step on to the Rod Laver court, because I was very close to having this grand slam in my pocket, if that makes sense. I guess I’ll have to try and try as many times as I can. But I’m excited. It gives me the certainty that I can do it. Also, the year when I reached the final was a very tough physical year for me because I got so sick. But I made it. 

“Yeah, why not do it again? Of course, it’s complicated. You have to put so many things together. You know how it is, it’s hard.  But I’ve done it and I believe more than ever that I can do it again.

“I think I’ve always had that belief. I think always believing so strongly in myself whether I was playing good or less good, is what make me just be at the highest level for so many years … Sometimes it gives you a certainty and a character, it builds you different, if you have those grand slams.”

That outlook could prove decisive should Muguruza make her projected last-four appointment with Aryna Sabalenka. The Belarusian second seed, who has never been beyond the fourth round at Melbourne Park, has endured a torrid start to the season, losing in Adelaide to Rebecca Peterson and Kaja Juvan – respectively ranked 82nd and 89th – and serving a total of 39 double faults in the process. 

Reduced to serving underarm at times against Peterson, the distraught Sabalenka was asked by chair umpire Julie Kjendlie if she was OK. “Nothing is wrong, it’s a technical problem,” Sabalenka replied. “I cannot serve better.”

She can, of course, as last year’s barnstorming progress to the last four at Wimbledon and the US Open attests. But with an Aussie awaiting in the first round in the shape of wildcard Storm Sanders, and a potential quarter-final against seventh seed Iga Swiatek, she will need to make the required adjustments to her game and mindset quickly.

Arguably the most intriguing question is who will come through the second quarter of the draw, where Krejcikova and Paula Badosa, two players who made giant strides last season, are projected to face off in the last eight. Krejcikova has been a model of consistency since her breakthrough victory at Roland Garros last summer, and her run to the final in Sydney would suggest she is not about to rest on her laurels after finishing 2021 with three titles. The bad news for the Czech is that it was Badosa, a player tipped by many as a potential world No 1, who came between her and the title, the battling Spaniard prevailing in a third-set tiebreak to record her third win over Krejcikova in three matches.   

The great unknowable is how Emma Raducanu will fare. It is barely four months since the British teenager came through qualifying to win the US Open without dropping a set, but she seems to have packed in a lifetime of experience since, with a veritable blizzard of sponsorship deals and high-profile engagements attracting criticism that she has taken her eye off the ball. 

While it is true that Raducanu has struggled to reproduce the level she showed at Flushing Meadows, such brickbats are patently unfair. She is hardly the first young champion to experience a dip in form after life-changing success, and it is perhaps revealing that she chose to take aim at her critics in a new Nike commercial that shows her hitting strokes against a changing backdrop of short quotations including: “distracted”, “fluke” and “one-hit wonder”. The advert ends with the slogan: “World off. Game on.” 

“The video speaks for itself,” says Raducanu. “That’s how I feel.”

Contracting Covid in Abu Dhabi last month has hardly helped Raducanu’s progress, undermining her hopes of using the off-season to improve her strength and conditioning. The 17th seed wears her elevated status lightly, however, and while others may have lofty expectations, she is just grateful to be making her main draw debut at Melbourne Park.

“I think it’s going to be a very cool experience to play here in the main draw for the first time,” says the 19-year-old, who faces former US Open champion Sloane Stephens in the opening round. 

“I played a few years ago in the juniors. Coming back here playing in the main draw so soon, I feel quite proud of this achievement. It is a bit of a different feel because, back then, we weren’t allowed in the main area. It’s quite fun to see and look around.”

It is too easy to overlook the reality that this is her first full season on the tour, such has been the meteoric nature of her rise. For the time being, however, Raducanu – who now has an experienced, respected coach in her corner in Torben Beltz – is focusing on small steps rather than more giant strides. 

“As long as the trend is trending upwards, just a matter of small fluctuations, I think I can be proud,” she says when asked about the hurdles she has encountered since the US Open. “Whatever challenge that is, I feel kind of ready to face it now.”

The post Australian Open women’s preview: Barty faces big test appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

At 28, Muguruza has never had a clearer understanding of herself, her game and what she still wants to achieve as a player. Inspired by the chance to compete for one of the sport’s biggest titles before a Latin American crowd, Muguruza utilised that knowledge to telling effect against Anett Kontaveit, the standout performer over the final stretch of the season, to claim the title at the season-ending showpiece for the first time.

“This just proves once again that if you had it before, you have it during your whole career,” said Muguruza, who will rise to No 3 in the world rankings following her 6-3, 7-5 victory. “I’m just very happy I proved to myself once again I can be the best, I can be the ‘maestra’, like how we say in Spanish. That puts me in a very good position for next year, a good ranking. How can I say? A good energy. It’s just the payoff for such a long year. My team and I worked hard. It pays off. It just shows us that we’re doing [things] the right way.

“I think for the people from the outside, they kind of feel like, ‘Oh, Muguruza is playing well again.’ I mean, it is true that the last couple of years I didn’t play the same way I played before. But I didn’t play bad tennis either. I was just here, there, not going into the deep rounds at grand slams that made the difference. 

“I always felt I had the tennis. I was just not putting the battle together. I always believe. I made finals of a grand slam, reached the rankings, I’m like, ‘I have the tennis, I just have to show it.’ It’s hard, of course. This is just another proof that, I think, I’m actually in the best moment of my career. The experience I have now, the tennis, the way I handle myself, I think it’s much better than before.”

Evidence of these improvements has been plentiful over the past week, just as it has been throughout a season that has brought titles in Dubai – Muguruza’s first tournament win in almost two years – and Chicago, as well as final appearances in Melbourne and Doha. We will never know what might have been had Muguruza not squandered match points against Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open, or had her blistering start to the year not been undermined at a critical juncture by the thigh injury she picked up before the French Open. What we do know is that she has rarely looked more resilient, more capable of taking setbacks in her stride, more comfortable in her own skin. 

As the opening set demonstrated, the passion that is rarely far from the surface has been counterbalanced by a newfound calmness and composure. Having ballooned one drive volley long and netted another to relinquish an early break, Muguruza did not hesitate to employ the tactic again in her next service game. There was no hint of frustration or self-pity when she missed two opportunities to break for a second time, but rather a quiet resolve to create and convert a third, which she duly did. And when Kontaveit powered a forehand wide to gift her a set point at 5-3, Muguruza was ready, stretching wide to hoist up a backhand lob winner so good that even she looked stunned.

“Overall I think it’s the best year for me,” said Muguruza, who lay prone on the baseline, convulsed by tears, at the moment of victory. “I might not have won a grand slam, but I deeply feel like I’ve been happier and more stable, less dramatic, and in general very happy about it.

“I was stressed at the beginning because I wanted to do so well. I had a tough group. I didn’t start well. But I was like, ‘OK, calm down, you wanted to be here, this is your dream, you are here, you still have a chance, so be quiet for a little bit, stop complaining, just keep fighting, hold there, hold to your little chances you might have.’ Me and Conchi[ta Martínez, Muguruza’s coach], we were speaking. We were just seeing all the good and positive things. ‘I know we lost, but we’re here. You have a chance. We’re not leaving from Guadalajara without just giving it all.’ Look where I am now with that mentality, keeping positive. I made it.”

For Kontaveit, it was perhaps one match too far at the end of a season that has elevated her career, her confidence and her standing in the game to a level she could barely have dreamed of when she won the second title of her career in Cleveland, on the eve of the US Open. That victory was the catalyst for a remarkable winning sequence, one that brought tournament victories in Ostrava, Moscow and Cluj-Napoca and propelled her into the world’s top 10 for the first time, earning her a place in the elite eight-woman field in Guadalajara. It has been some run, and if the enormity of the occasion weighed a little too heavily at the last, inhibiting the free-hitting abandon and sense of conviction that has been Kontaveit’s calling card in recent months, she can nonetheless look to next season with real optimism.

“I think a lot of it was nerves,” said Kontaveit, who will end the year ranked seventh. “I just felt pretty anxious on the court. I never really eased into the match. Didn’t feel fully comfortable. I think it’s definitely a very good experience for me, something that I have a lot to learn from. 

“I think it definitely has given me so much confidence, so much self-belief. I’m looking forward to just taking some time to reflect, to think about what has happened in the last few months. I’ve been playing matches non-stop, so there hasn’t really been any time for that. I’m really looking forward to doing that. I’m excited for the next season. I really want to keep this momentum up, just keep improving on my game.”

Muguruza had punctured Kontaveit’s aura of invincibility with a straight-sets win in the group stage, ending a sequence of a dozen successive victories for the Estonian, and it was perhaps the self-belief derived from that result that sustained the Spaniard as she broke with a stunning forehand winner with Kontaveit serving to level the match at 5-4 in the second set. In truth, the Estonian had been up against it from the outset. It took Kontaveit five minutes to win her opening service game and eight minutes to lose her next one, Muguruza’s power off the ground thwarting her attempts to pull the Spaniard wide and prevent her from dictating the baseline exchanges. 

A well-earned celebration now beckons for Muguruza – “We’re going to have some tequila, have fun,” she promised – before a renewed assault on the game’s biggest prizes. “I’m very motivated to just play those grand slams that are not yet in my place, in my home. I’m still waiting for those ones there. Overall, the big trophies are what motivates me.”

It is a bold statement, the kind of sentiment we are more accustomed to hearing from the likes of Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic, and coming from a lesser player it might invite ridicule. Coming from Muguruza, it is music to the ears. The Spaniard has finally emerged from the shadow of past achievements. La maestra is back in town. Roll on 2022.

The post Muguruza masters Kontaveit to win WTA Finals appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

That the former world No 1 now stands within one victory of claiming her biggest title in four years is testament to her self-belief. Muguruza has overcome every obstacle in her path, making the necessary adjustments to her game, battling back from a set down to defeat Krejcikova, and then bringing Kontaveit’s 12-match winning streak to a juddering halt with an impressive straight-sets win. Her resurgence continued in the semi-finals, where a near-flawless display of power tennis saw her prevail 6-3, 6-3 against Paula Badosa to become the first Spaniard to reach the title round since Aranxta-Sanchez Vicario in 1993, the same year she was born. 

“I feel like I struggled in the first couple of matches,” reflected Muguruza. “One, I didn’t find the way. The other one, I did. All of those circumstances help you to find the way, the way to play here, to find your shots, to serve, to have a game plan. Because I struggled and went through the tough times, it’s like a little progression, you know? 

“Sometimes it’s not like that. Sometimes it just gets worse. I feel like in this time it really helped me. Those first matches, two and a half hours on court fighting, trying to find a way, I think paid off today a little bit in terms of a feeling. I’m like, ‘Okay, I know the altitude by now. I’ve spent many hours on the court.’ 

“I managed to have a serve that works here in Guadalajara. But I think everything got better. Probably the serve, it’s a shot that it’s more tricky in altitude. I feel like in general my game, my shots, my serve, my movement, it’s improving match by match.”

No one will have felt that more keenly than Badosa, whose progress to the last four had been as serene as Muguruza’s was fraught. This match was supposed to mark the changing of the guard, the moment when Badosa – at 24, the younger woman by four years – came of age as the pre-eminent Spanish player. Instead, it was as though we had been transported to a parallel universe, one where it was Muguruza who had swaggered her way into the semi-finals and Badosa who had struggled to find her feet. 

Muguruza was irresistible, breaking early in both sets as she resisted the temptation to go too big too soon, patiently playing her way into rallies with high-percentage shots before launching missiles into the corners whenever Badosa dropped the ball short. It was the same brand of blistering tennis that had propelled her to 19 wins in 23 matches at the start of the year, earning her the Dubai title as well as final appearances in Melbourne and Doha. We will never know what might have been had her season not been undermined by the left thigh injury she sustained in Charleston, as she made the spring transition from hard courts to clay. What is certain is that the Caracas-born Spaniard has drawn huge inspiration from the late decision to stage the WTA Finals in Mexico, where she has revelled in the Latin American vibe.

“[It’s] probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me in my career to play a Masters in Mexico,” said Muguruza, who is guaranteed to end the year an No 3 in the rankings irrespective of the outcome in Wednesday’s final. “It’s a cocktail for me that’s super motivating. Every time I came here to Mexico, I always feel very welcome, very happy. The environment just clicks with me. Having a Masters played [in Mexico] this year, it was like, ‘Okay, Garbiñe, this is your opportunity. You have to give it your all, no matter [if] you win or lose. You have to get out of here and feel like, man, I gave all my energy.’ I think I’m doing that.

“The fact it’s in Latin America, it’s clearly something that I love… I do feel like here it’s different for me. I feel more at home. I feel more the culture. That really matters when you come to the Masters, the last tournament of the year, to have the stadium screaming and full of excited people.”

Badosa has engendered similar levels of passion among the Spanish-speaking crowd, and while the Indian Wells champion was clearly frustrated by her inability to reproduce her outstanding recent form, there is surely plenty more to come from her. Tipped as a potential future No 1, Badosa’s powerful all-court game, sinuous movement and frequently jaw-dropping defensive skills are a match for the best. It augurs well that, having cracked the top-10, she appreciates she will start next season with a target on her back and is already primed to prepare appropriately.

“I like to have quite different things, different games,” said Badosa. “I like to be aggressive, but as well I want to be a good defensive player. I have to work a little bit on everything.  Mentally, I have to make another step because it’s not the same [now]. To start the year 70 like last year, now to start the year eighth, I will have [to deal with] a lot of expectations. Mentally it will be tough, because every player will want to beat me. I’ll have to make another step forward on that.”

She could do worse than take a leaf out of Maria Sakkari’s book. Like Badosa, the Greek has come of age this year, reaching the last four at Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows and establishing herself as a card-carrying member of the game’s elite. Sakkari fought tigerishly against Kontaveit, stubbornly refusing to wilt before an early barrage of immaculate shot-making from the Estonian. Once again, however, she was consigned to semi-final agony, Kontaveit earning a crucial break in the eighth game of the decider to set up a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 victory. It was a Heraclean effort from the Greek, who was inconsolable in defeat.

“I just saw the finish line,” said Sakkari, who was broken to love after taking a 3-2 lead in the decider, and subsequently led 40-0 on serve at 4-3 only for Kontaveit to claim a second break. “Things went downhill. I was very close to taking that chance. I just wasted it. That’s why it hurts so much. It’s not that it was just bad luck, it’s that I threw away another chance. It hurts.”

Kontaveit, meanwhile, has her sights firmly on the possibility of a third successive title – and a fifth since she began her late-season surge in Cleveland, on the eve of the US Open. It has been a remarkable run, one that has seen her win 29 of her past 32 matches and enter the top 10 for the first time. Victory in what will be comfortably the biggest match of her life would elevate her to sixth in the rankings, and while Muguruza will no doubt draw strength from her group-stage win over the Estonian, Kontaveit will approach the challenge with understandable confidence.   

“I feel like the last few months have really showed me that I can play really well, I can beat great players consistently,” said Kontaveit. “I think I sort of have this self-belief now. When I came here, of course, I had nothing to lose. Every time I step on the court, I still think I can win the match.”

That much was evident when the moment of crisis came in the third set against Sakkari. “When I went a break down, 3-2, I just managed to tell myself that if this is the last match of the season, then I might as well enjoy it. I feel like I got some freedom from that and just started playing better, and managed to turn that set around.”

It is a healthy attitude, one that Kontaveit says she will carry into the final, where she promises to heed the lessons from her defeat to Muguruza without dwelling on the negative. 

“It’s a very exciting moment for me,” said the Estonian. “It’s my biggest final so far. I mean, I think I have a lot of self-belief and confidence. I’m really going to enjoy it out there and hopefully play a good match. I mean, I’m ready for whatever comes. I’m ready for the next challenge.

“I definitely have to clean up the unforced errors from the previous match. I think that’s the main thing. Just really fight and give my everything. We’ve played a couple of times in a very short period of time. I’m ready for a tough match. She’s played some great tennis. She’s beaten really good players. So have I. I’m really looking forward to this new challenge. It’s a new match. The previous matches, I think they don’t really matter if you have this new opportunity.”

It promises to be some finale.

The post Muguruza hits her stride at WTA Finals as Kontaveit awaits appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Were Pliskova to successfully name all the occasions on which she failed to emerge from a set with a game in 2021, it would be a feat of recollection to rank alongside those of John von Neumann, the mathematical genius who used to entertain friends by reciting randomly selected pages from the phone directory. In March, Pliskova was beaten 6-0, 6-2 by Jessica Pegula in Dubai. In April came a 6-0, 7-5 reversal against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Madrid, while May brought the nadir, a 6-0, 6-0 defeat to Iga Swiatek in the Italian Open final. It is fair to say the 6-0 set has become the 29-year-old’s personal nemesis.

If Pliskova thought the WTA Finals would offer a sanctuary from such ignominy, she was unceremoniously disabused of the notion by Anett Kontaveit, a 6-4, 6-0 winner over the Czech in her second outing in Group Teotihuacán. That defeat left Pliskova’s hopes of reaching the last four in Guadalajara hanging by a thread. Her compatriot, Barbora Krejcikova, arrived at the party bearing scissors. Like Pliskova, Krejcikova needed a win to have any hope of progressing. It barely needs stating that she won the opening set 6-0, playing near-flawless tennis as Pliskova shot herself in the foot with a dozen unforced errors. 

Krejcikova was superb, landing 85% of her first serves and gifting her opponent just three mistakes, a measure of how well she has adjusted to the conditions since her opening-day travails against Kontaveit. Yet Pliskova was a listless, error-prone, downbeat shadow of the player who opened her campaign in Guadalajara with a dramatic three-set win over Garbiñe Muguruza.

“It’s a difficult situation, of course,” said Pliskova, who was bidding for a fourth consecutive semi-final berth at the WTA Finals. “You never want to start a match like this, with my serve and with my game, not to be able to make a game. I think it was a combination of her playing well, me not playing that well. 

“But you just go back to really trying to make the simple things. With the serve, maybe just to go for the serve which you feel the most confident about. Just to play simple, maybe a couple of cross-courts, not to go for crazy winners. I think there is not the situation if you’re down 6-0 that crazy winners will just come out of nowhere. So I just fought hard to give myself a chance, at least to wait. Maybe she’s going to miss a couple, because she didn’t really miss anything in the first set.”

And that’s the fascination of Pliskova. For all that she sometimes seems to amble about like a casual observer at a car crash of her own making, she is never as disengaged as she looks. It is a mistake merely to focus on her setbacks, however spectacular they may be, without also considering how she responds to them. Any player can lose a tennis match 6-0, 6-0; it takes a special player to bounce back from such a reversal by reaching a Wimbledon final, as Pliskova did less than two months after losing to Swiatek in Rome. The mental strength required to effect such a turnaround is immeasurably greater than whatever weakness may necessitate it. The fact is that Pliskova has a healthy attitude to the game, one born of experience, of an appreciation that losing is as much a part of the sport as winning. Why should she beat herself up after a bad loss? After all, as Pliskova says, “There’s always another match.” And, in this case, even another set or two. 

Having returned from a lengthy bathroom break, Pliskova sealed her first game of the match – and indeed her first in 15 attempts, having also lost the last eight against Kontaveit – with an ace. If she hoped it would be the start of a spectacular turnaround, she was quickly disabused of the notion. Krejcikova romped into a 4-2 lead, and it took all Pliskova’s powers of escapology to avoid falling behind by a second break, the Wimbledon finalist saving a break point with a crunching forehand as she survived an 11-minute game to hold for 4-3.

The effort proved worthwhile. A nervy-looking Krejcikova hit three double faults in the next game, gifting Pliskova a break, and when she subsequently missed a backhand volley that would have given her two break points for a 5-4 lead, the alarm bells were ringing for the younger woman. Krejcikova’s woes continued as she served to stay in the set, two more double faults handing Pliskova parity. Her chances of qualifying for the semi-finals now reliant on a combination of results and mathematics, Krejcikova continued to battle in the decider, forcing Pliskova to stave off break points in the fifth and ninth games. Having boldly battled her way to 5-4 despite a spate of double faults of her own, a fired-up Pliskova was not to be denied, capitalising on another flurry of errors from Krejcikova to keep her qualification hopes alive. 

“In the second, that game where she gave me three double-faults, of course that kind of helped me to come back,” said Pliskova. “On the other hand, I think it was just because I was constantly putting pressure, just getting better with every game I played. I thought till this moment she didn’t really miss much. Of course, it’s tough to play a perfect match.”

The irony was that none of it really mattered in the end. Muguruza, who needed a victory against group winner Kontaveit to progress to the semi-finals at Pliskova’s expense, got just that, breaking the Estonian’s 12-match winning streak with a 6-4, 6-4 victory. Muguruza, who broke early in both sets and held serve throughout, will face Paula Badosa in the last four as two Spaniards reached that stage for the first time in the event’s history. 

“It’s amazing% there are four players left and two of them are Spaniards,” said Muguruza, who is though to the semi-finals for the first time since her tournament debut in 2015. “I mean, that just shows that Spain has a great level of tennis and a great school.

“It is very special for me. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to play the finals here. I’m extremely motivated.”

The post Pliskova conquers her demons but loses out to Muguruza at WTA Finals appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Such strife is uncommon in the women’s game and, despite the best efforts of all concerned to skirt around the issue beforehand, it added a frisson of intrigue going in to their fourth meeting of the year. To no one’s great surprise, Muguruza had her game face on as she emerged from the bowels of the Estadio Tenis Akron to a rapturous reception from a Mexican crowd that has adopted the Venezuela-born Spaniard as one of their own. The feeling is mutual. Muguruza has made no secret of her delight at the decision to stage the event in a Latin American country, but she was unable to translate that zeal into victory in her opener against Karolina Pliskova and, having lost in a third-set tiebreak against the Czech, her continued interest in the tournament hinged on avoiding a third successive defeat to Krejcikova. 

Things looked unpromising for the former world No 1 when Krejcikova, who needed at least a set to avoid elimination after losing her opener against Anett Kontaveit, reeled off four games in a row to move ahead 6-2. It was a patchy start from both women – Muguruza’s 18 unforced errors narrowly outnumbered the Czech’s 15 – but Krejcikova was the more consistent of the two, converting all three of her break point opportunities. Conversely, a tense-looking Muguruza struggled to make her superior firepower tell, producing just two winners and finding the court with a meagre 58% of her first serves. Did she want it a little too much?

“I felt like in the first set I wasn’t doing enough,” said Muguruza. “Every time I served, she would break me or I would not dominate. I feel like the serve is such a weapon. Here in the altitude, I had to do something different. I concentrated a lot on making those first serves at least, so I could hold my serve, then try to break her. That was definitely a key today.”

Indeed it was. With the crowd firmly behind her, Muguruza claimed an early break as Krejcikova drove a pair of forehands long, and consolidated her advantage with some vastly improved serving. A second break soon followed and, although Krejcikova struck back to win two games in quick succession from 4-1 down, the Spaniard held firm. Moving more freely and striking the ball with greater authority from the baseline, Muguruza found the court with 71% of her first serves, firing down five aces as she levelled the contest. 

“In the second set the crowd really helped me,” said Muguruza. “I said [that] before, and I really mean it, because they cheer me up. I realised that, hey, I’m not leaving this court without changing things around at least, or giving Barbora the biggest fight.”

That she did. Having sealed a vital break at 1-1, smoking a forehand winner to convert her sixth break point after an epic 12-minute struggle, Muguruza sustained her momentum to complete a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win. How much did it mean to her? Any doubts were quickly dispelled, first by the gleeful relish of the clenched-first celebration she directed towards her coach, Conchita Martínez, and then by a perfunctory handshake with Krejcikova that was notable for a lack of eye contact. 

“I think she served pretty well,” said Krejcikova, who will face Pliskova in her final match of the round-robin stage. “I know that she can just raise her level up. It’s really tough when she’s serving well, especially in here with the tough conditions. I’ve been just trying to find a way. I was just a little short at the end. But I think I did a really good match, I did a really good performance … Today’s match was really close. I was just the one that was unlucky. That’s it. That’s how I see the match.”

If Muguruza is to progress from Group Teotihuacán, she will need to make an impression on the winning machine that is Kontaveit. A 6-4, 6-0 victory over Pliskova made it a dozen wins in a row for the Estonian, who booked her place in Guadalajara with successive titles in Cluj-Napoca and Moscow. With her first win in four meetings against the Czech, Kontaveit, the world No 8, is now guaranteed a place in the semi-finals.

“I think I wasn’t thinking about the fact that I was 3-0 down in previous matches,” said Kontaveit. “I think every time you step on the court, you have a new opportunity. The previous matches don’t really matter. It’s a new day and you have to beat the player you’re playing against. That’s how I approach the match.”

Key to Kontaveit’s success has been her ability to adapt to the high-altitude conditions in Guadalajara. “I think with every shot here, the ball takes off a little bit,” she reflected. “It’s just [about] trying to get used to it, play solid in your service games, not give any easy points, try to stay as focused as you can, make as many first serves as possible.”

Pliskova, who missed three chances to claim an early break, led 30-0 as she served to stay in the opening set at 4-5. But a Kontaveit return that clipped the net tape and died gave the Estonian a foothold in the game, and she needed no second invitation, taking the set with some blistering play off the ground.

“You can see she’s confident,” said Pliskova. “I’m sure she’s lucky at some times, but of course she’s playing great tennis right now. Sometimes I think when you are on this kind of streak of winning matches, you don’t really think [about] what to do, how to do [it], what happens if you play like this. I think she’s just really not thinking much, playing great tennis overall, for sure with a lot of confidence. But to me, it was not about if she’s playing well or not. I was playing normal, and she was just playing extremely well.” 

The post Muguruza wins Krejcikova grudge match at WTA Finals appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Three months on, Kontaveit is the woman of the moment. Riding high at a career-best ranking of eighth in the world after an extraordinary sequence of 26 wins from 28 matches, a run that has earned her four titles and a maiden berth at the WTA Finals, the 25-year-old is suddenly the player to beat. It has been quite the transformation.

In her opening match in Guadalajara, Kontaveit staged another unexpected act of metamorphosis, the aggressive baseliner turning servebot to secure a 6-3, 6-4 victory against Barbora Krejcikova, the French Open champion, and seize the early advantage in Teotihuacán Group. 

While both players struggled at times to bring the ball under their spell in a city that sits 1,500 metres above sea level, Kontaveit was the quicker to adapt to the high-altitude conditions, firing down eight aces and winning 85% of her first-service points. That stat is not quite as remarkable as it may look at first glance – with the ball flying wildly, Kontaveit found the court with less than half of her first deliveries – but she backed it up with a healthy 62% success rate behind the second ball, and did not face a break point throughout. Combined with a measured but confident display from the baseline, it was too much for Krejcikova to handle.

“I think I managed to do a good job,” said Kontaveit after claiming her fifth top-10 win of the season. “The tennis is pretty fast here, so it was important to make a first serve. I wish I made a lot more first serves. But once it did go in, I managed to win a lot of points, which was very important I think.

“Throughout my career, I’ve been in sort of the top 30 for a lot of years now. During the summer I was on a bit of a losing streak, then I started working with Dmitry and was really hoping to get a few wins. I managed to win Cleveland, then it just sort of started rolling from there.

“I’ve been believing in myself a little bit more, and the game definitely has clicked from just getting more wins and playing a lot of tennis and really feeling comfortable.”

That much was evident. Krejcikova, who in the absence of Ashleigh Barty, Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu is the only reigning grand slam champion in the field, has shown herself to be a master locksmith this season, but the Czech struggled to find her usual control and consistency in the thin Mexican air. Although she was broken only twice, Krejcikova made 34 unforced errors in all, repeatedly sending her returns long and further undermining her cause with some untimely double faults. The good news for the world No 3, who is also playing the doubles in Guadalajara alongside her compatriot Katerina Siniakova, is that she will have plenty of matches to work out how best to acclimatise. 

“The conditions were tricky,” said Krejcikova. “It was my first match, so obviously I was hoping it would go better. It wasn’t that good. I still have a lot of matches to go. It was only two breaks, one in the first, one in the second. I hope I’m going to improve [in dealing] with the conditions. It’s just difficult, because a couple of days ago I was playing in Europe, now I’m here. It’s really, really, really difficult.”

In the evening session, Karolina Pliskova shaded a topsy-turvy battle between the only two players in Guadalajara who have contested the event previously, defeating Garbiñe Muguruza 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6) to extend her dominant record over the Spaniard. Having broken at the first time of asking, Pliskova dropped serve twice in quick succession as Muguruza seized control of the first set against a player she had beaten just twice in their previous 10 meetings. It was, said Pliskova afterwards, the cue to open her shoulders.

“I just went for it a bit more,” said the Czech, who conceded just two points on serve in the second set. “I thought I was a bit too passive in the first set and still making mistakes. I said, ‘Okay, just go for it a bit more. If I’m still making mistakes, at least I will have some winners.’ Especially the second serve, I wanted to really put pressure on it. It paid off.”

As the clock ticked past the two-hour mark, Pliskova fashioned her first match point, blasting an off-backhand return past Muguruza as she served to stay in the contest at 4-5. The Spaniard staved off the danger with a big first serve down the centre, and survived a second match point when Pliskova nudged a two-hander into the bottom of the net. Now it was the Czech’s turn to be tested, Pliskova finding two first serves when she most needed them to recover from 15-40 down in the next game. 

Pliskova faced another sticky moment with Muguruza serving at 5-4 in the climactic tiebreak, but some errant hitting off the forehand proved costly for the former French Open and Wimbledon champion, who gifted Pliskova a third match point. This time it was the Czech who went long, but at 7-6 she sealed the victory as Muguruza sent a forehand wide behind her serve.

“Man, that was a painful loss, definitely,” said Muguruza. “It’s not easy to play here. I actually felt good. I fought as hard as I could. At the end, it was just one point difference. I’m proud of the match I played, due to the circumstances. I loved the crowd. Even though I suffered during this match, I also felt very energised and motivated to play in Mexico.”  

The post WTA Finals: winning starts for Kontaveit and Pliskova appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

It was the Croatia-born Australian’s first win over a top-10 player for two years, and only the fourth of her career. That it should have come against Muguruza, an athlete hewn in her own image – tall, powerful and shot through with a deep and occasionally self-defeating vein of perfectionism – will surely have made victory all the sweeter. Tomljanovic had lost three of her previous four meetings with the Spaniard, but claiming the scalp of a player who arrived in Palm Springs fresh from lifting the Chicago title offered further evidence that, at 28, Tomljanovic is coming to understand her game and her disposition better than ever.

“I get really happy when I get into these moments where I get nervous and I manage to stay calm and focus just on the task,” said Tomljanovic, who will face Tamara Zidansek, the 26th seed and French Open semi-finalist, in round three.

“Even when I have in the past missed my chances or had really tough losses against the top players, you’re like, ‘Well, OK, I’m going to learn from it.’ But the next time you’re in the same position, it’s never really the same. It’s always a new moment. But you can take the lessons before and apply it. The fact that it’s always new – in that moment, you have to problem solve.

“I’m just happy that I took everything I could from all the losses before, and just did my best to react in a way that will benefit me.

“I knew that I could have lost again [after] putting myself in good situations. But I’m going out there knowing that I’m capable, and that I can come up with the goods when it matters.”

Like Emma Raducanu, who also tumbled to a surprise defeat after receiving a first-round bye, Muguruza struggled to find her range off the ground against an opponent who had acclimatised to the unique playing conditions at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden with a convincing first-round win. She even started like Raducanu, winning her opening service game convincingly and going 0-30 up against serve before Tomljanovic steadied the ship. 

As the easy power that is her calling card proved elusive, however, Muguruza began to press too hard, 15 unforced errors flowing from her racket by the end of the first set. The quality of the Australian’s returning only added to her angst; despite landing a healthy 79% of her first serves in the opener, Muguruza was broken three times. 

Having finished the first set in desultory fashion, double-faulting to drop a game she had led 40-0, Muguruza began to show greater patience and composure. As she began to adapt to both the conditions and her opponent, lengthening the rallies and drawing mistakes from Tomljanovic, there was a dramatic reversal of roles. It is often said the Spaniard lacks a plan B, and yet here she was, showcasing an extensive repertoire of drop shots, sliced forehands and topspin lobs to complement her trademark power game and snatch six of the next seven games.

It looked like a decisive shift of momentum, and there was a time not so long ago when it might have been. But Tomljanovic is made of sterner stuff these days, the perfectionist in her counterbalanced by a stronger mentality in the clutch moments. She will have hated the 14 unforced errors she made in the second set almost as much as the way she let slip a two-game lead in the decider. But how she will be encouraged by her dogged resistance in the seventh game, where she went toe-to-toe with Muguruza from the baseline to wrest the Spaniard’s serve from her once more after trailing 40-15. How she will be heartened by the fortitude she showed in consolidating that advantage with a solid hold before claiming a second break to seal the match.

“Everyone in this tournament, we all go through the same emotions,” reflected Tomljanovic, who said she has benefited from working with a psychologist over the past year. “The one that comes out on top is the one that gets over it as quickly as possible, but still takes the lessons out of it.

“Just learning what to do in certain moments is really, I think, key for me at this stage in my career.”

Elsewhere, sixth seed Maria Sakkari was beaten, losing 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 to Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic. There was better news for Ons Jabeur, however, the Tunisian claiming a WTA Tour-leading 45th victory of the year with a 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 win over Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia. Karolina Pliskova, the top seed, defeated the Polish qualifier Magdalena Frech, 7-5, 6-2.

Also through is Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 title winner, who saw off Alison Riske 7-5, 5-7, 6-2 to set up a third-round meeting with Anett Kontaveit, the 18th seed, who beat the Canadian in straight sets at Eastbourne. “It’s a different surface so things can go either way, because both of us have very suitable hard-court game styles,” said Andreescu, seeded 16th. “I think it’s going to be a good match. I definitely have to bring my A game, because she’s a really good player.”

In the men’s draw, Daniil Medvedev opened his Indian Wells campaign with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Mackenzie McDonald of the US. “I’m really pleased, because usually I haven’t played well in Indian Wells, and I haven’t been playing that well in practice,” said Medvedev. “[I am] really happy with my performance. That’s the most important, no matter how I played before the tournament.”

The post Tomljanovic takes down Muguruza in Indian Wells appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

This week, meanwhile, has brought the strangest of runs at the inaugural Chicago Fall Classic, where Muguruza arrived hoping to fine-tune her game before Indian Wells only to reach the final via a route that included a bye and two walkovers, first against Victoria Azarenka in the last 16 and then when Marketa Vondrousova was forced to pull out with food poisoning.

As Muguruza makes her final push for a place at the season-ending WTA Finals in Guadalajara, she will not care a jot about the circumstances surrounding her second title of the season. In recovering from a set and a break down to avenge her Wimbledon defeat to Ons Jabeur, the Spaniard improved her ranking by three places to sixth, vastly improving her chances of claiming one of the eight spots available in Guadalajara. For now, that is all that matters.

“That was a battle, especially those first sets,” said the 27-year-old following her 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory. “We’ve played recently, this year at Wimbledon, and it was a very tough match, and I knew that she’s having one of the best seasons that a player can have. I was prepared, I went out there with all the fighting spirit in the pocket.”

Such resolve was much needed. Jabeur has a game almost tailor-made to give Muguruza problems, the Tunisian’s singular blend of power and touch allowing her not only to keep pace with the former word No 1 from the back of the court but also to bewitch and bewilder with an array of different spins, drop shots and angles. Muguruza was drawn into Jabeur’s intricately constructed web at Wimbledon, and needed all her considerable experience and resilience to avoid a similar fate here. 

Muguruza was offered an early reminder of what lay ahead when Jabeur teased her forward with an artful drop shot only to leave her stranded with an exquisitely judged lob volley. Panache then gave way to potency as the Tunisian rifled a backhand winner to seize a love break for 3-1. It was all the advantage Jabeur would need. She secured the opener with another drop shot, a faded effort that spun away viciously from the scrambling Muguruza, and looked set fair for a second WTA title when some more bold hitting earned her an early break in set two.

As history has demonstrated, however, things are rarely straightforward between these two. They had split their previous two meetings, the winner of the first set losing out on both occasions, and when Jabeur sprayed a forehand wide to drop serve for the first time, a repeat of that pattern slowly started to take hold. Jabeur, helped on her way by a stunning forehand pass that was boisterously acclaimed by the vociferous Tunisian contingent in the stands, broke again in the fifth game. But having belatedly gained a foothold, Muguruza was in no mood simply to relinquish her interest in the contest. Returning with power and purpose, she dug in, staying in the rallies long enough to profit from some loose play by Jabeur, and once more reclaimed the break at the first time of asking.  

Now the tide began to shift. As the mistakes mounted for Jabeur – having made just three unforced errors in the opening set, she would go on to make a dozen in the second – Muguruza pounced in the eighth game to move 5-3 ahead. Four set points came and went for the Spaniard – who, having led 40-0, was forced to save two break points – before she levelled the match. A brief rain delayed followed, but Muguruza had established a momentum she would not relinquish. As the Spaniard’s strokes and movement began to flow, so too did her confidence. Jabeur would not win another game.

“She was playing amazing in the first set, and my level was not at what it should be to play against her,” said Muguruza, who also won the Dubai Championships in March. “I slowly found a space in the second set to break and to get that one, and force a decider. That gave me the extra confidence I needed, and also the energy to go and get the trophy.”

For Jabeur, who has now amassed a tour-leading 44 wins this year, it was another week to remember in a season that has been full of them. She is up to 14th in the rankings, tantalisingly close to her dream of a place in the world’s top 10, and has her sights firmly set on a place at the WTA Finals, where she would be the first Arab woman to make the cut. 

“The main goal is to qualify for Guadalajara,” said Jabeur following her semi-final win over Elena Rybakina, who was forced to retire with gastrointestinal problems midway through the second set. 

“It’s a dream coming true. It’s something big. Knowing that I can be the first Arab to qualify, it’s unbelievable. It’s more stress on me but I really made my peace with it. I’m going to do my best.”

The post Muguruza beats Jabeur to win Chicago title appeared first on Love Game Tennis.