Paris: Spanish tennis player Garbine Muguruza beat World No. 1 and defending champion Serena Williams 7-5, 6-4 to win her maiden Grand Slam crown at the French Open on Saturday.
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Williams is looking for her fourth Roland Garros singles title and her 22nd overall in grand slams, which would equal the record of Steffi Graf and place her two behind all-time record holder Margaret Court.
Williams said Muguruza was simply too good for her on Saturday. “I’m not one to ever make excuses and say, like, ‘Oh, my adductor was hurting, ‘ or whatever”.
But with weather conditions improving after one of the rainiest Roland Garros tournaments on record, it was a different, more focussed Williams that got the final underway with a love service game.
Besides her technical ability, Muguruza also displayed impressive mental toughness to withstand the pressure that allowed her to win her first major title.
The press hailed “Reina Garbiñe” (Queen Garbiñe), with stories noting that she is the first Spanish women’s champion since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in 1998 at the French Open, the only major played on clay, a surface on which Spanish players have had tremendous success over the years. The Russian teenager came out and simply overwhelmed Williams, the two having played just once before, Sharapova crushing Serena with her power off the ground. She overcame that by making the most of her chances: Muguruza converted on four of 10 break opportunities, whereas Williams converted on two of eight chances to break.
As he lob fell over the head of Williams and onto the baseline, Muguruza could hardly take it all in, before putting her hands to her face and falling to the clay. Muguruza raised her arms in triumph and disbelief.
“I made a lot of errors”, said Williams, whose bid to draw level with Graf’s professional era record of 22 grand slam titles has hit the buffers since last July. We saw her four years ago, when she lost in the first round of the French Open and everyone said, “What’s happening to her career?”
That’s why she’s so powerful on court and could dominate Serena like she did! “[It]Just goes to show you, you really have to play the big points well, and I think she played the big points really well”.
“I thought about it [Kerber’s three-set win]”.
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.
Spain’s Garbine Muguruza serves the ball to U.S. player Serena Williams during their women’s final match at the Roland Garros 2016 French Tennis Open in Paris on June 4, 2016. And for the third Grand Slam event in a row, Serena’s march to 22 was cut short just before the finish line.
Williams, 34, stepped into the court and put Muguruza on the back foot, breaking back for 4-4 when Muguruza sent a backhand long. “But it’s going in the right direction, I think”.
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She realized after her Wimbledon final run that she would be one of “the hunted”, but said Saturday that’s what she prefers. “But, yeah, for sure I’m pretty happy with my performance”. On the third, she followed a menacing first serve with a backhand drilled up the line into the corner, out of Williams’ reach.
