Serena Williams’ pursuit of tying Steffi Graf for the most Grand Slam singles titles will continue at Wimbledon because she was upset by Garbine Muguruza in straight sets in the 2016 French Open women’s final Saturday.
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The 22-year-old is a power player like Williams and has been hugely impressive in her run to Saturday’s final.
Williams won her 21st slam singles title at the All England Club previous year but since then has lost to Roberta Vinci in the semi-finals at the US Open and Angelique Kerber in the final of the Australian Open.
“I learned so much from that match”, Williams said.
The 22-year-old, who lost to Williams in last year’s Wimbledon final, is the first Spaniard to lift the Suzanne Lenglen Cup since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in 1998.
Williams eased past Magdalena Rybarikova and Teliana Pereira in her opening two matches at Roland Garros.
Williams was broken in the opening game on a double fault and faced a set point when she served at 3-5 and 30-40. Her tactics paid off with Williams failing to cope with a series of explosive baseline groundstrokes.
Williams eventually took the first set 7-6 on a tiebreak that she edged 9-7, settling into a more comfortable rhythm in the second set, which she won 6-4.
They’ve both been in that position before, Williams at the Australian Open in January and Djokovic on three occasions in Paris.
After a tournament littered with early defeats for numerous leading women, Saturday’s final will be a match to relish, bringing together the world’s best player and arguably the brightest prospect among the next generation. But she broke straight back and conceded just two more games to reach the final.
In the quarterfinals, Muguruza saved a set point against surprise quarterfinalist Shelby Rogers and in the semifinals, Muguruza defeated the 2010 finalist and 21st seed Sam Stosur very easily. ‘ It’s time to focus on tomorrow’s fina l: “Muguruza has been playing really well”.
Wawrinka then played a dismal service game to allow Murray to pull 5-2 clear and it was all over shortly after that.
Most crucially, she did so in the seventh game of the second set to go down 5-2, but, with Muguruza serving for the match, Stosur broke to stay alive.
A Spaniard was crowned champion at the French Open – but it wasn’t Rafael Nadal. They returned to deuce several times before Muguruza sailed one wide and Williams held to force Muguruza to win it with her serve, if at all. Williams was 19-0 in grand slam finals when winning the first set and 2-5 when losing it.
Their fourth and most recent meeting was in the 2015 Wimbledon final.
“The first set was not very easy but I think that today (Friday) I played better”.
Williams stood and applauded as Muguruza sank to the clay in celebration.
Muguruza’s game is firing on all cylinders and if she continues playing the way she has been during this rain interrupted fortnight, she could blast Williams off the court like she did in 2014.
Williams had struggled with an adductor injury at Roland Garros, a condition not helped by the unseasonal chill and damp.
“The good thing is we’ll have many (chances) because she’s in finals nearly every time”.
Neither woman moved well and Williams confirmed after the match that she has been hampered by a thigh problem.
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But Muguruza also handed Williams her heaviest ever loss at a slam at Roland Garros two years ago, beating the great American 6-2 6-2 in the second round.
