wants to return Garbiñe Muguruza. With the blindfold removed and seeing things more clearly, the reaction arrived, the decision to rejoin the train that was happily moving him towards the golden space of tennis and, consequently, to gradually recover the ground lost in the last two years. . He will cost, and perhaps even the desired season will not be reached, because in tennis two years are an eternity. There will be losses. But the will exists and now Garbiñe is applied, who this Thursday, during the Spanish dawn, took another step forward in Melbourne, the first stage to gauge the effectiveness of that rudder change.
For now, Muguruza is already in the third round and in her first two matches there are significant signs. He raffled a first day of dogs, still convalescing from a viral process that diminished him during the week before the tournament, and on the second date he got rid of a sticky rival who did not make things easy for him. Defeated the local Ajla Tomljanovic (6-3, 3-6 and 6-3, in 2h 21m), the next meeting will gain volume and will require one or two steps forward against the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, fifth seed and executioner of the American Lauren Davis (6-2 and 7-6).
“I come with real expectations to say: well, I have a lot of games ahead of me and I’m not seeded. [es la 32 del ranking], then they will all be very difficult, so I am going to go game by game. The first day was pretty fair [la fiebre le retiró de Hobart la semana previa al torneo]so it’s a challenge because you are not one hundred percent. I only think about recovering and going game by game. Let’s see how many I can win … ”, she said.
In any case, hopeful details are observed. Muguruza is no longer carried away and looks into the eyes of the problems that are happening on the track. He came back in the premiere and this time he knew how to stop the Australian’s attempt, by the way, an excessively flat and too conservative player. Methodical and linear, Tomljanovic lacks what Garbiñe has in excess: deep forehand and a crosscourt backhand difficult to find in another racket on the circuit. Final shots. He also had patience and good work, because that’s what a match with traps hidden in the cement required.
“I must have patience, less anxiety”
However, Muguruza had control and mettle. Now, the complaints are fair. No bad gestures or bad faces. More and better attitude, complicity with Conchita on the bench, as revealed by the smile that both exchanged as soon as the victory was signed; This, built on a good response in the first round, when Garbiñe counterattacked the break at the beginning with two lunges, and another show of faith and confidence in the third, when she did not let the Australian get up, who had countered the break of the fourth game.
Muguruza left happy, restrained but satisfied. There is much, much work to be done, but the vibrations are different. Last year she reached the eighth in Melbourne and in 2017 her ceiling in the tournament, the quarters; now, the purpose is not so much how far she can go as to get back in shape, to be a recognizable competitor again. Reconstruction requires time, stone by stone, and the first two months of the new cycle with Conchita –“we are working on many things: tennis, not tennis…”– are returning good habits. Tennis, tennis, tennis. Garbiñe clenches her teeth again and clenches her fist, but not out of anger. She wants to go back.
Suárez says goodbye to Melbourne
“Last year, in the important moments, things didn’t go my way and this year I’m trying to face them again with more calm. It’s a new year and I’m excited to play and find sensations again, have more patience, less anxiety about wanting everything now, right now. I am patient, because the time will come ”, she resolved before the special envoys and before being left alone in the women’s draw. In her last participation in the tournament, since she is retiring at the end of the course, Carla Suárez gave in against the Polish Iga Swiatek (6-3 and 7-5) and Sara Sorribes could not with Anett Kontaveit (6-1, 4 -6 and 6-1).
In the men’s draw, Fernando Verdasco (4-6, 7-6, 6-4 and 6-4 over Nikoloz Basilashvili) and Pablo Carreño (6-4, 6-1, 1-6 and 6-4 over Peter Gojowczyk) advanced. ), but Jaume Munar was unable to beat Alexei Popyrin (6-2, 7-6 and 6-2) and Valencian Pedro Martínez, who had just won his first victory in a Grand Slam, the first also on the ATP circuit , said goodbye to Daniil Medvedev, who he threw a serve from below. “It wasn’t disrespectful, it was just way behind and it’s a resource,” he explained. “It is a pediment”, he then described the Russian, who could collide with Rafael Nadal in a hypothetical semifinal. “From the bottom he doesn’t push much, but he hardly misses. He is very big, he reaches all of them and he has one of the best serves”, he concluded.