“I had a few problems in my foot but I have recovered now”, she said.
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Muguruza will begin her Australian Open campaign against Estonian Anett Kontaveit on Tuesday, as she bids to improve on the fourth round exit she has suffered in each of the last two editions of the tournament.
“I’ve been working and practising for that”.
The explosive Muguruza, enjoying her highest career seeding at a Grand Slam, has been tipped as a future world number one and she lived up to her billing on Rod Laver Arena. “I think it’s a bit odd”.
Match-fixing speculation also continued to reverberate on day two as more players revealed approaches after a BBC and BuzzFeed report said corruption was widespread in the sport.
Later on the second day, Aussie-born Brit Johanna Konta sent Venus Williams crashing out.
Last year’s runner-up is hoping to become the first man in the Open-era to win a Grand Slam title after losing the final four times, and Zverev, 18, proved no match for the world number two.
And retired Briton Arvind Parmar told how he was once offered a cash-stuffed envelope to lose a match, one hour before he stepped on court at a Challenger tournament in the Netherlands.
Fortunately for Milos Raonic, he didn’t have to grind out a win against Lucas Pouille in the first round at Melbourne Park.
It was the Frenchman who guided Azarenka to the top of the women’s game and to successive Australian Open titles in 2012 and 2013.
Muguruza, who will play either Belgian Kirsten Flipkens or Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni for a place in the last 32, said she was focused from the get-go.
In other early action on Tuesday in Melbourne, 15th-seeded American Madison Keys eased past Zarina Diyas, 7-6(5), 6-1.
“Always the first rounds are really tough but I’m really excited to be back here and into the second round”.
It was a walk in the park for the third seed, as she wrapped up her game within an hour.
She added: “My foot is good”.
It was the eighth time she’s lost in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament and the third in Australia, where she reached the quarterfinals in her first appearance in 1998 and lost the final to her youngest sister, Serena, in 2003.
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She signaled her intentions by breaking the Estonian’s first game before comfortably holding her own serve, dictating the match and pushing her opponent around the court.
