Paris: Garbine Muguruza won her first Grand Slam title by beating defending champion Serena Williams 7-5, 6-4 at the French Open today, denying the American her record-equaling 22nd major trophy. The Spaniard, 12 years her junior, was playing in just her second after losing last year’s Wimbledon final to Williams.
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The following year, at the Australian Open, her fourth round match with Williams went to three sets, with Muguruza winning the first.
Muguruza, 22, is the first Spanish woman to win here since Arantxa Sánchez Vicario beat Monica Seles in the final in 1998 and will rise to No.2 in the rankings.
Williams who was trying to win her fourth French Open title, has only lost 6 out of 27 Grand Slam finals. “I think at the end of the day I didn’t play the game I needed to play to win and she did”, Williams said.
During the French Open final, NBC’s Ted Robinson said Muguruza reminded him of a young Maria Sharapova when she first burst onto the scene to beat Williams in the 2004 Wimbledon final.
For, two years ago, at this very event, Muguruza, then 20, had handed Williams the most one-sided defeat of her astounding 339-match Grand Slam career.
Her tactics paid off with Williams failing to cope with a series of explosive baseline forehands and backhands.
For the better part of the last decade, fans at Roland Garros would’ve been accustomed to hearing Spain’s national anthem after seeing one of their players win the French Open title.
Muguruza’s first appearance of the grass-court season will be at the new tournament in Majorca, which starts in a week’s time.
“This is the big tournament in Spain and Rafa Nadal is our champion”, she said courtside, referring to the nine-times men’s victor who pulled out injured last week. “From now on what I’m going to look for is to try to keep my level and forget about all this “I have to win, Garbine has to win”.
“I think she has the desire”, he said. “I mean, that just goes to show you that you really have to play the big points well, and she played the big points really well”. “She knows how to play on the big stage and clearly, she knows how to win Grand Slams”. So I was like: ‘No, you can’t play like most Spanish players do.
In the last three slams, Williams has lost once in the semi-finals and twice in the final, and Mouratoglou feels history is weighing heavily on her. “Serena was in front of the ball so I didn’t know if it was in or out”, said a beaming Muguruza, who was presented with the trophy by American great Billie Jean King.
But her committed contribution to Saturday’s captivating final suggested that, perhaps with an awareness of diminishing opportunities as she approaches her 35th birthday, she cared more than she was willing to admit.
Muguruza was also able to save four break points against Williams; getting tagged just once in five attempts from the hard-hitting world no. 1.
Muguruza maintained her level of play and composure to start the second set with a third break of serve, but she then struggled on her own serve, coughing up a seventh double fault to hand back the advantage.
“I think all the top players are a little bit hunted”. “She will be around for a long time, I hope. Did she win a Slam ever?”
Muguruza serving and looking to consolidate the break point she earned when Serena double faulted in the previous game.
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Her form in 2016 until these two weeks had been shaky to say the least but Sumyk had faith she could produce at Roland Garros.
