Spain’s Garbine Muguruza receives the trophy after winning the final of the French Open against Serena Williams in two sets 7-5, 6-4, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris on Saturday.
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She is the third straight first-time Grand Slam victor after Flavia Pennetta at last year’s US Open and Angelique Kerber at the Australian Open.
“I’m so happy. I had to be very ready and concentrated on all the points and just to fight as much as I can”.
“I grew up on clay so for Spain and me this is just incredible. All the matches I played against her (in the past) helped me”, Muguruza said in her victory speech.
Billie Jean King, the grande dame of women’s tennis, reckons Garbine Muguruza’s stunning French Open triumph, especially the way she outhit Serena Williams, signals the start of a change of guard in women’s tennis.
With the win, Muguruza becomes the first Spanish woman to win the title since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario did so in 1998.
Muguruza moved out into a 3-1 lead and Williams dug deep to get back to 3-2. Muguruza was also able to save four break points against Williams; getting tagged just once in five attempts from the hard-hitting world no. 1. Early odds have Williams at 7-4, with her closest competitors, Muguruza and Petra Kvitova, both at 7-1.
“Thanks to my coach, Patrick (Mouratoglou)”, Williams said.
Pete Sampras does not envisage Serena Williams experiencing a fall from grace and believes a lack of motivation is the main reason behind her inability to win a record-equalling 22nd grand slam title.
Williams was troubled by sore muscle in her semifinal win over Kiki Bertens.
Ahead of the grass court season, Wimbledon finalists Serena and Muguruza have the greatest number of points to defend, with 2000 and 1356, respectively.
Williams said Saturday’s lost is “definitely something I want to dissect and see what I can learn from that and what can I do to get better from it. So we’ll probably have many others, many opportunities and I don’t doubt that she’ll achieve [22 majors]”. She’s 34, she’s won over 20 majors.
It’s fairly surprising that Muguruza came away with the win, and not just because it’s still surprising when anyone beats Serena. “Hey, if Kerber can, I can”, she said. There was nothing Williams could do about the fifth, which Muguruza converted with a delightful lob that landed right on the baseline. Muguruza is six years younger, has a sound game built on power and accuracy and an inner belief that she belongs – a belief she first showed to the world last year when reaching the final at Wimbledon.
Williams though was struggling and this time it was the quality of her opponent’s play rather than her own misgivings that were responsible for her struggles.
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“Well, there was a moment when nobody knew and would say that I had won the match”.
