It marked the first win for Venus over her sister at Wimbledon since 2000, and is (to date) the last time she would beat Serena at any major. “My dream is to continue and win more tournaments, similar tournaments, and to dominate”, she said. With howitzer groundstrokes and a burglar’s guts, Muguruza put herself in the upper echelon of tennis on Saturday.
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Muguruza also managed to deal with Williams’ unsafe serve, breaking three consecutive times from late in the first set to early in the second. “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.
But Muguruza was solid on her serve despite the occasional double fault and the Spaniard went 4-2 and then 5-3 up.
Williams suffered only her sixth defeat in 27 Grand Slam finals stretching back to 1999, but did not blame her injury issues.
Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruza defeated Serena Williams in straight sets today at Roland Garros, claiming her first career Grand Slam title and denying Williams her 22nd.
“I’m so so excited”.
Muguruza said “I can’t explain with words what this day means to me” and that “for Spain and for me this is just unbelievable”. Muguruza did well to save two early break points with good serving and a fine hold for 2-2 gave her confidence.
But it will take a more distant vantage point to know if this match is where Serena started succumbing to age. And there’s no shame in that. It’s like breathing new or fresh air.
Williams has been struggling with her forehand, making unusual errors on her signature shot.
Williams got No. 21 at Wimbledon in 2015, her fourth major in a row. Graf quit when she was 30, 16 long years after turning pro. The only other woman to do that just happened to be the only other woman born in the 1990s to win a Slam, Petra Kvitova. Nobody in the men’s or women’s game has been ranked No. 1 in the world at Williams’ age, either.
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. Williams’ days of winning three out of four majors a year, as she did last year, would seem to be over. That was beyond remarkable. The two have now played five times, with all their matches coming at the Slams.
Muguruza, not fazed one iota by missing her chances to close out the match, served it out to love, 6-4, by dropping a final lob onto the baseline. Her serve, when working, is a weapon. All a helpless Williams could do was smile, all Muguruza could do was look at her box in astonishment. Both women hit hard, trading bold forehands and backhands from the baseline that made it seem unfair to characterize almost anything as an “unforced error”.
“Garbine played unbelievable”, Williams said. “I don’t know how you say it”.
“I’m proud of her … because it’s not easy”, Sumyk said. Mugurza pressured deep to the forehand wing to break.
All told, she and Williams slugged it out for 148 points, and three-quarters of their rallies (112) ended in four shots or fewer.
“When I am on the court, I want to dictate my game and bring more of these cups back home”, Muguruza said. “I am attack-minded”. Two more came and went as the drama was ratcheted up another notch, Williams forcing Muguruza to serve it out.
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But it could not have been more different this time as she blasted her way to the title. I’m not one to ever make excuses and say, like, ‘Oh, my adductor was hurting, ‘ or whatever. Muguruza had the game to overpower Serena. “At the end of the day I didn’t play the game I needed to play to win and she did”.
