It only felt like yesterday when an unknown quantity from Caracas, Venezuela made her first appearance on the biggest of stages. Little did the tennis world know that she’d turn out to be a future Top 5 professional player in the women’s game.Her name? Garbine Muguruza Blanco.
Muguruza was familiarized as a player that doesn’t hold back on the first serve, but also went very big on the forehand wing in her early development. She barely ever played junior tennis and grew up playing clay court tournaments throughout the year. Many argue that as the years have progressed she’s developed a potent and devastating backhand, which is vital in modern tennis. For a player to be able hurt an opponent off both wings is crucial. Also a significant factor is a player’s ability to zone out of a rally with a destructive backhand down the line, which can be argued that Muguruza has in abundance.
Her first real taste of the level of the very best in Women’s tennis came in Australian Open 2013, where she eventually lost to Serena Williams 2-6 0-6. It looked like a comprehensive scoreline, but the minor details of this tennis match had a lasting effect on many that watched Garbine Muguruza on that particular day. A lot of the games in that match were actually incredibly competitive and this match would prove to be a starter to exactly what Garbine Muguruza would have to offer to this sport in the years to come.
The Venezuelan-born Spaniard started regularly featuring on WTA Events in 2013, making good runs in both Miami and Indian Wells. She managed to play her first ever match on Wimbledon Centre Court against Anne Keothavong, but after some considerable highs on the tour, she was staring at the greatest of lows–ankle surgery and considerable nasal problems that prevented her from competing in the sport for six months. All in all, 2013 for Garbine Muguruza was a good year, she scored a Top 10 win over Caroline Wozniacki in the United States, ran two Top 10 players close in Li Na and Angelique Kerber, but also scored one of her biggest wins ever on her least favourite surface by beating Dominika Cibulkova in Rosmalen en route to reaching the semifinals. Muguruza, who admittedly didn’t like the grass courts and predominantly grew up on the clay courts in the Bruguera Academy, was starting to show signs that in fact she could post positive results on all surfaces alike.
2014 saw the evolution of Garbine Muguruza at competing for titles on the WTA level, but more significantly making some ground at Grand Slam level too. A title win in Hobart as a qualifier, where she virtually dismantled the field dropping 22 games in 8 matches, evidently showed to the rest of the tour that she had arrived. After her first Grand Slam QF in Roland Garros, but two disappointing results in Wimbledon and US Open, she was yet to find her true consistency. This is an issue she’s still dealing with to this day: finding her optimum level of true competitiveness and determination throughout the calendar year, which in effect should come with age and experience at the highest level.
Her first Grand Slam final at the age of 21 under the tutelage of Alejo Mancisidor, her long time coach, was the first time Muguruza had announced herself as someone who could truly be a force to be reckoned with and a household name to many tennis fans around the world. At this point many already recognized how well her game translated to a hard court surface and were very aware of her familiarity to the dimensions of a clay court, but this grass court result losing to Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final had confirmed Muguruza in tennis history, but had also established her as a player for all surfaces. That was something many couldn’t say 2 years prior to that date.
Now in 2015, after a maiden Grand Slam final and reaching the WTA Top 5 at the higher echelons of the game, she’s now qualified for her first Year End Championships in singles and could well prove to qualify for the doubles competition too. That draws great attention to the strength of character a player of 21 years of age can demonstrate, to face the sort of adversity that any player can face on a daily basis through regular competition, but to succeed also, reflects just what kind of human being and competitor we are seeing from Garbine Muguruza in 2015 and beyond.
