Garbiñe Muguruza faces the final stretch of the season with a smile, with a “good feeling” according to its definition and with the second title of the year on the bag. The Spanish, 27, won the Chicago WTA 500 on Sunday with an exercise of faith: went back a set to the Tunisian Ons Jabeur and in the second he raised two breaks. “A title is not achieved every day and now comes Indian Wells, a tournament that we love and in which I hope to continue with this inertia”He explained to AS from Chicago as soon as the game ended.
Conchita Martínez’s team has planned the last stretch of the campaign with care. After the US Open, Muguruza held a mini-season in San Diego, approached the Ryder Cup to follow Jon Rahm and Sergio García for a day and faced the Fall Tennis Classic with the determination to achieve a good result that will bring her closer to the WTA Finals, the female Masters to be played from November 10 to 17 in Guadalajara. The 470 loot points in Chicago place her already sixth in the race, just six points behind Greek Maria Sakkari. There are eight. Number one Ashleigh Barty could resign and number eight, Naomi Osaka, is on an indefinite hiatus. Ahead, Barty, Aryna Sabalenka, Barbora Krejcikova and Karolina Plikova have their place assured. She would be the ‘Latin Power’ of an appointment that traveled from China to Mexico due to the pandemic and that will speak in Spanish.
“Being in the top eight indicates that things have gone well. I am not classified yet, but it is without a doubt one of the goals of the year. That it is in Latin America is a great motivation for me, “says the double Grand Slam champion on a Finals that he has played three times, but has not stepped on since 2017 (they were not held in 2020).
“The circuit is now a raffle”
Muguruza
Just before that appointment, Muguruza will lead the Spanish Federation Cup team in the Prague finals (November 1-6). “I am also very excited to compete for my country again. We were the whole group at the Tokyo Games and it was a great experience”, recalls Garbiñe, who noticed that his game was beginning to come back in Japan and made pineapple with Paula Badosa, Sara Sorribes and Carla Suárez.
His sixth position in the classification of the year speaks of regularity. It started the year like a shot (finalist in Yarra Valley, round of 16 in Australia falling to champion Osaka, final in Doha, title in Qatar …), but a muscle injury in Charleston slowed his career. At Roland Garros he stumbled in the first round, at Wimbledon in the third and in the round of 16 at the US Open.
“Other years it has been the other way around. You play Grand Slam well and the other tournaments not so much. But being able to go to the Finals means that I am being regular. If I start to analyze Grand Slam matches, they have not been easy or I have had a difficult draw, “he says about a somewhat crazy circuit. The last US Open was for Emma Raducanu (18 years old) against Leylah Fernández (19).
“Before we were used to the same faces, or to Serena winning everything. Now it is a raffle. There are fresh young people, without fear, the circuit moves and the tournaments are taken by whoever is better that week “, warns the former number one, who is already sixth in the WTA ranking. This Monday he traveled from Chicago to Indian Wells, to golden California where he wants to be the protagonist and will probably debut on Friday. ‘Latin Power’ with the batteries at full throttle against beautiful targets.