{"id":6708,"date":"2018-02-16T13:11:55","date_gmt":"2018-02-16T18:11:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=6708"},"modified":"2018-03-26T10:37:42","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T14:37:42","slug":"garbine-muguruza-garcia-qatar-open-quarterfinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2018\/02\/16\/garbine-muguruza-garcia-qatar-open-quarterfinals\/","title":{"rendered":"Muguruza Edges Past Garcia to Book Qatar Semis Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Garbine Muguruza won a topsy-turvy <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/2018\/02\/11\/wozniacki-azarenka-halep-and-sharapova-descend-on-doha\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Qatar Total Open<\/a> quarter-final 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, against Caroline Garcia in a match where both players exchanged superiority.<\/p>\n<h2>Caroline Garcia showing glimpses of her best<\/h2>\n<p>There were signs at the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/australian-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Australian Open<\/a> of recovery from injury by world #8 Garcia. However, this recovery was interrupted in controversial fashion in St. Petersburg when Garcia&#8217;s match against up-and-coming Elena Rybakina ended on a controversial umpire call.<\/p>\n<p>When Garcia went a break down in the final set through Muguruza&#8217;s persistence, it became too big a mountain to climb. Consequently, the slide from 67 percent to 37 percent on first service points won by Garcia between the first and second set, allowed Muguruza a focus point. Muguruza seized momentum to see out the match 6-4 in the third. Arguably though, Garcia will take more positives from this match.<br \/>\n<a id=\"nreTtAUGTE1UA4RjRnGIDA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/919001686\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'nreTtAUGTE1UA4RjRnGIDA',sig:'vLRpzRyzseHIkt3mHtGsDK4oCr7tczQwQYlg4dRH3FY=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'919001686',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Match plays out like a game of Kerplunk<\/h2>\n<p>Inevitably a third set was needed to separate these two quality players. The shape of the match became akin to a Kerplunk game between two intensely tactical players. They both knew each other&#8217;s strengths and there was a desire to unsettle the other by suddenly being bold. This made for a match high in entertainment.<\/p>\n<p>Aggressive net-charging was punished with precision passing shots. Preparation for Wimbledon definitely had to be taken off the agenda.<\/p>\n<h2>Garbine Muguruza puts Australian Open shock behind her<\/h2>\n<p>World #3, Garbine Muguruza possesses a deftness of touch around the court. Sending out a message that the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2018\/01\/17\/su-wei-hsieh-stuns-garbine-muguruza-straight-sets-victory\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">defeat to Su-Wei Hsieh in Melbourne<\/a> was just a blip. Her sights will firmly be on grabbing back the #1 spot from Caroline Wozniacki. Going forward, a Muguruza versus an in-form Petra <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/2018\/02\/15\/kvitovas-tennis-recovery-purple-patch-gathers-momentum-in-doha\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kvitova<\/a> match here would be a spectator&#8217;s delight.<\/p>\n<p>With Simona Halep withdrawing from the Qatar Open semi-finals, Garbine Muguruza advances to Sunday&#8217;s final.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"U0VRwvQVRnZ1t8W6fj2Iag\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.co.uk\/detail\/919011668\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'U0VRwvQVRnZ1t8W6fj2Iag',sig:'zTmtoC-azkoeyzBQyARnsPUUjOOOOBwugyiVH5SnSQg=',w:'594px',h:'395px',items:'919011668',caption: true ,tld:'co.uk',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Garbine Muguruza won a topsy-turvy Qatar Total Open quarter-final 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, against Caroline Garcia in a match where both players exchanged superiority. Caroline Garcia showing glimpses of her best There were signs at the Australian Open of recovery from injury by world #8 Garcia. However, this recovery was interrupted in controversial fashion in St. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2169,"featured_media":6726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[205,406,2693,200,101,2692,74,48,15],"class_list":["post-6708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wta","category-news","tag-australian-open","tag-caroline-garcia","tag-doha","tag-garbine-muguruza","tag-petra-kvitova","tag-qatar-total-open","tag-simona-halep","tag-tennis","tag-wta"],"modified_by":"Sam Barker (Editor)","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}