Women’s tennis badly needed a charismatic new champion to shake up the era of Williams and Maria Sharapova, whose doping verdict is likely to arrive this week.
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Williams lost in straight sets to Spaniard Garbine Muguruza 7-5 and 6-4 underneath cloudy skies at the French Open final on Saturday to win her first French Open title.
The report adds that with the victory, Muruguza becomes the first Spanish champion since Rafael Nadal in 2014, and the first Spanish female player to win the tournament since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1998.
I can’t explain with words what this day means to me, and that for Spain and for me this is just fantastic.
In the past three majors, Williams lost in the U.S. Open semifinals, lost to Angelique Kerber in the Australian Open final of the Australian Open in January and now the title-match loss at Roland Garros.
She will next play in Mallorca, to tune up for Wimbledon, where she finished runner-up behind Williams previous year.
The 22-year-old Muguruza was playing in her second Grand Slam final after losing to Serena in the 2015 Wimbledon final.
“For sure watching Serena’s last couple of matches, you would think her intensity was a little less but (in the final) Serena was in full force and I think Garbine did very well because she was the one that went for the match and won the match”.
“Just to control the emotions I think is the key sometimes, especially in a Grand Slam where you’re very nervous and excited”.
Ahead of the grass court season, Wimbledon finalists Serena and Muguruza have the greatest number of points to defend, with 2000 and 1356, respectively.
She may also draw hope from the fact that Williams could be suffering from a groin problem. “I’ve got to take my time and enjoy, because with tennis players it goes so fast”.
Williams’ twilight is certainly now – she’s 34 – but twilight can be handsome and Williams seems likely to enjoy a bit more time in the sun. The Williams serve – so long the best shot in the women’s game – suddenly looked vulnerable and Muguruza had the courage and the ability to attack it and even make it look average. “Adductor or not, she played to win”. “All the matches I played against her (in the past) helped me”, Muguruza said in her victory speech.
Muguruza broke twice in the opening set, eventually serving it out for a 7-5 lead.
“And I think it’s incredible to see new faces and that the players know now that it’s possible to win, to defeat Serena”.
“I looked at the umpire and he doesn’t want to say anything”. Muguruza would bounce back in the final game though, ending the match with a powerful serve that would connect with the baseline.
Muguruza, a Spaniard ranked No. 4 in the world, won the third title of her young career.
“To Patrick, my coach, I wanted to win but hopefully next year”, an emotional Williams said. It doesn’t make her play bad but maybe not aggressive enough to win it.
She is only able to stab back Serena’s backhand, but Williams doesn’t get as much as she would have liked on the approach, and Muguruza replies with a lob that just catches the back line. The American hung in, as she always does, but Muguruza held serve throughout and at 5-3, she had Williams at 15-40, two Championship points.
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Novak Djokovic feels he has a slight mental edge over Andy Murray heading into their French Open final battle today.
