Want to go back Garbiñe Muguruza. Removing the blindfold and seeing things with greater clarity, came the reaction, the decision to rejoin the train that was transporting him happily to the golden space of tennis and, consequently, to recover the ground lost in the last two years . It will cost, and maybe even the desired season will not be reached, because in tennis two years is an eternity. There will be defeats. But the will exists and now Garbiñe is applied, who this Thursday, during the Spanish early morning, took another step forward in Melbourne, the first stage to gauge the effectiveness of that shift.
At the moment, Muguruza has already stepped into the third round and in his first two games there are significant signs. He raffled off 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. With the local Ajla Tomljanovic down (6-3, 3-6 and 6-3, in 2h 21m), the next crossing 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 will go game by game. The first day I 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… ”, he said.
In any case, hopeful details are observed. Muguruza no longer gets carried away and looks into the eyes of the problems that are happening on the track. He came back at the premiere and this time he knew how to stop the attempt of the Australian, incidentally, an excessively flat and too conservative player. Methodical and linear, Tomljanovic lacks what Garbiñe has to spare: deep forehand and a crossed backhand difficult to find on any other racket on the circuit. Final shots. He also had patience and good work, because a game with traps hidden in the cement demanded it.
“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 the two exchanged as soon as they signed the victory; this, built on a good response in the first round, when Garbiñe countered the break at the start with two lunges, and another show of faith and confidence in the third, when he did not let the Australian, who had countered the break of the fourth game.
Muguruza left happy, restrained but satisfied. Much, much work remains to be done, but the vibes are different. Last year he reached the eighth in Melbourne and in 2017 his ceiling in the tournament, the fourth; Now, the purpose is not so much how far she can go as to regain her form, to be a recognizable competitor again. Reconstruction takes time, from a stone to a stone, and the first two months of the new cycle together with Conchita – “we are working on many things: tennis, no tennis …” – are returning good habits. Tennis, tennis, tennis. Garbiñe grits his teeth again and clenches his fist, but not out of anger. He wants to go back.
Suárez says goodbye to Melbourne
“Last year, in the important moments things did not go my way and in this year I am trying to face them again with more tranquility. It is a new year and I am excited to play and find sensations again, to have more patience, less anxiety of 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 team. In her last participation in the tournament, since she retires at the end of the course, Carla Suárez yielded 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 to Nikoloz Basilashvili) and Pablo Carreño (6-4, 6-1, 1-6 and 6-4 to Peter Gojowczyk) advanced ), but Jaume Munar could not beat Alexei Popyrin (6-2, 7-6 and 6-2) and the Valencian Pedro Martínez, who had just obtained his first victory in a Grand Slam, the first also on the ATP circuit , said goodbye to Daniil Medvedev, who threw a serve from below. “It has not been a lack of respect, it was simply far behind and is a resource,” he explained. “It’s a fronton,” he described the Russian below, who could collide with Rafael Nadal in a hypothetical semi-finals. “From the bottom it does not press very hard, but it hardly fails. He is very big, he reaches all of them and he has one of the best serves ”, he settled.
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