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.
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Her first, last summer at Wimbledon, became a commendable 6-4, 6-4 loss to Williams, who in turn had lost to Muguruza 6-2, 6-2 at the 2014 French Open, a loss Williams said propelled her toward the four Grand Slam titles she has amassed since then.
Muguruza had only won two professionals titles before in her career but she produced a sublime display of hitting to overpower the world number one and win 7-5 6-4.
But two years ago on the same court, Muguruza announced herself to the world when she beat Williams for the loss of just four games.
It was never going to be easy coming up against Serena Williams, who has won 21 grand slam singles titles and was attempting for the third time to equal Steffi Graf in second place on the grand slam leaderboard with 22. On a fifth match point, with Muguruza serving at 40-0, she struck the brilliant backhand lob that Williams thought would go long.
She and Muguruza had met the year prior at Wimbledon and the first-time finalist gave Williams quite the challenge in a 6-4, 6-4 contest. She was one of tennis’ top movers, relying on counter-punching to frustrate and wear down rivals.
Williams, who had been the big favourite, was given a rousing reception as she accepted her runner-up prize but Muguruza, who accepted the winner’s trophy from the former American great Billie Jean King, was a deserving victor. Williams was offset by a hindrance call early in the second set, as well, berating the chair umpire on the subsequent change overs for making the call against her. “Do not look my way”, she told chair umpire Eva Asderaki. “We were like: “Oh, Roland Garros will not be the same.’ I said to my coach: ‘Federer and Nadal are not here. She played to win”. I do not think the scenario will change in near future.
Muguruza is similar to Williams in some ways.
‘She played seven matches here, the first was a bit shaky but that can be normal in a Grand Slam. The showers jumbled the tournament schedule, and Williams was in action a fourth straight day in the final.
Said Williams: “The only thing I can do is just keep trying”. “This is the tournament in Spain, being on clay, Rafa is the champion and to win here is the best”.
“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. You can do it, “‘ Muguruza said.
Last year, when she collected a sixth Wimbledon, it allowed her to celebrate a second “Serena Slam” of all four majors at the same time.
“I still had another chance serving, and I just tried to be calm even though inside, I was like, ‘there’s no way.’ I managed to be calm and just think about what I have to do every point, and didn’t think about match point or championship point”.
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And at Paris, Williams, 34, didn’t have enough to best an opponent more than 10 years her junior. She has a power game and likes to dictate play with aggressive shots.
