The Italian tennis player won in two sets against Karolina Pliskova by 7-6 (2) 6-3 and she qualified for the semifinals of the WTA tournament in Wuhan.
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On Thursday, it was more of the same lethal power tennis from Muguruza, as she reeled off the final four games of both sets to improve her lifetime record to 3-0 vs. Schmiedlova. The Slovak broke straight back to love, levelling the match at one-game-all.
Schmiedlova had never beaten a top-10 player before and was understandably ecstatic after overcoming her Danish opponent, saying on the WTA Tour website: “I’m very, very happy and, very, very exhausted right now!” The Spaniard would go on to hold serve to regain parity early in the opening set.
Garbine Muguruza has found her groove once again.
The Slovakian, ranked 29th in the world, was trailing 6-1 4-1 to the fourth seed in China but she rallied to take the match to a decider and eventually triumphed 1-6 6-4 7-6 (8/6) after a three-hour epic. Her flat ground strokes were struck with an huge amount of velocity that even Schmiedlova who always hits the ball so cleanly, was struggling to get any rhythm on. Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, seeded 11th, also withdrew after she lost first set 6-2 to Camila Giorgi of Italy. However, in the fifth game, Muguruza had a look at going up a set and a break clear. The Spaniard then notched her 5th break of the day for a 5-2 lead and served out the match in the next game, closing affairs in 72 minutes. Despite Schmiedlova’s best efforts, she was unable to counter the pace that Muguruza threw at her on a consistent basis. The Italian, who shocked the world this summer when she defeated Serena Williams en route to her first Grand Slam final appearance, kept the momentum on her side by cracking a forehand victor on break point to take a 2-0 lead in set two. “It’s incredible here, a nice city, nice court, it’s just really exciting for me”. The Spanish number one continued the majority of her shots inside the baseline, taking away time from Schmiedlova.
“It was a great match for me”, Muguruza said afterwards in her on-court interview.
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This year’s Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza is through to the semi-finals of the Wuhan Open after sailing past WTA Rising Star Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
