We’ve known each other for a long time, and I’m still not sure how to address myself. Garbiñe, Garbi, Muguruza, Mugu? What name do the closest people use?
The strongest thing is that my mother calls me Gabi, my brother, Garbi, Conchi (Conchita Martínez), Garbi, sometimes. My team, Mugu. What people get hooked on. I turn when they tell me any of these things. Garbi is the most common and among the closest Mugu, because they find it funny.
See here the full interview with Garbiñe.
Have you had time to enjoy being the ‘teacher’ of tennis?
I have thought very little about that as a teacher. I have not had time for anything, everything has been very fast. What is strong is that we already have to go back to Australia. The calendar is crazy, and the boys still finish later. You finish in mid-November and at the end of December you are already leaving again.
Is there a real awareness of the track record you are building?
When you are on the move, you have little time to stop and look from the outside, with perspective, but I am very aware and I think people do too. It happens that we are very used to these things being not so special. The next one who wins Roland Garros, if it is Rafa Nadal or another Spaniard, it is as if it were normal. The level of success in tennis and other sports in Spain is so crazy that we are used to the fact that winning a Grand Slam is incredible but within reach.
What is required for 2022?
I demand that I have a season somewhat similar to this one, to finish the year in a good ranking, to win and make finals (five, three titles: Dubai, Chicago and Guadalajara Finals). Feeling stable when competing in each tournament, not having many ups and downs. It has been a very solid year, where I have been able to reach the final rounds in many tournaments, and with titles. The work is directed towards that objective.
“Defeat calls more attention than victory when you have obtained great results”
Does the recurring label of the double Garbiñe Muguruza bother you, the exalted one one day and the one that fails another?
The good thing about having won big things is that the novelty is perhaps more when you lose than when you win. When you win, you assume: ‘Garbiñe, how is he going to lose this game?’ Or you look at the ranking and you see a player who is further back and really plays very well, she beats you, and they say ‘come on, what a game Garbiñe has lost. Defeat is more striking than victory when you have achieved great results. But it is a privileged place to be, although it has its things as well.
Didn’t you risk confessing in public the ambitious challenge of completing the Grand Slam? Australian Open and US Open are missing.
I can’t not say that my goal is also the Grand Slam. In the end I have to be honest and share it. Look, my goals are the Grand Slams and we go with everything for it. Then let me be good or bad, people cannot crucify me for that. In the end we will do everything possible to achieve it. I can’t really control saying it, even if they look at me or say more later.
The first step is the Australian Open, where he made the final in 2020 and had match balls against Naomi Osaka in the second round of 2021, which was considered an ‘early final’. In fact, the Japanese was the champion.
It is a tournament that I like, there are already several tournaments that I have played well. That final escaped me, I have it in my mind every time I go to play it because I was very close and I feel that I can be it again. Last year was a very tough game, a shame it was a knockout so early in the tournament, it wouldn’t have been later but I like it. It is for most one of the favorites because there is an incredible atmosphere and it catches us fresher. Many people adore it.
“You learn to handle pressure, but you suffer it anyway”
Do you feel pressure? Do you handle it?
It is very difficult to handle. How do I explain it. You learn to handle it but you suffer it anyway. It is something that is always there, it will never go away in your entire career. Lifetime. Even for the best it is always there.
And the control of emotions?
I have improved a lot in managing them. In situations of tension, analyze what is nonsense and we turn the page now, I do not stay anchored for another minute. Before it lasted time and used a lot of energy. Now I have found it easier to focus on what really matters. There are also days when everything is not so good for me and I perhaps fall into negative thoughts, a bad face, because it is like you are always learning, it never ends. But I have improved a lot in this regard, yes.
At this point do you enjoy victory more or suffer defeat more?
You learn to enjoy victory more because in the end with the losses I have learned more to keep going. I lost, I don’t get angry anymore. Two minutes and on, I don’t want to be bitter all day. Or the whole week as it happens to you when you are younger. On the other hand, you do start to enjoy more of what a victory really means. That you are on the right track. Before it was like you take it for granted, I have to win that game, it’s normal. Not now, I say what a good game, what a good victory. You learn to enjoy it more. I don’t know if I’m getting older, but I’m letting go of the bad times much more easily.
“As time goes by, luckily, you stop thinking about money!
How important is money?
It is the reward of playing, everything has its payment, like any other job. As you play, the older you get and the more successful you get, you minimize it and focus more on the illusion of completing tournaments: which one I am missing, which one I would like to play, where do they support me the most to lift the trophy. You have other goals. Maybe when you are younger you usually think about that because you need it to travel, compete, for your team. Feel a certain stability of not feeling drowned. With the passage of time, luckily I have already been thinking about other things.
What remains of that girl who invaded the track where her two brothers trained?
My illusion is the same. I don’t know what I had as a child, who said that one day I will be number one, one day I will be there where Martina Hingis is. Well, at that time television was playing Hingis. I want to be there someday. I don’t know how I thought like that since I was a child, because a club in Venezuela is not the most promising place for that dream to come true, since there is no tennis culture. It was a bit like an unthinkable dream. When I see those photos with my brothers, what I usually think is what path has been traveled until today to be able to say that it has been achieved, that the Muguruza family dream has come true, because of three children one has achieved it. It’s like how strong the story, all the way.
What else do you ask of life?
I am very satisfied with my life. I have been privileged for everything: what has happened to me, the opportunities I have had, and I even have the talent, I am good at it. I don’t think I should ask more of life.
“The fear is injury, that something serious happens to you and you are gone for a long time”
Any fear?
As a tennis player, get injured or something serious happens to you and you are away a lot of time. Because the circuit is too hard to leave for six months and come back. I see it very complicated. All the players, no matter how good they are, when they have been gone for a long season then coming back has been difficult.
What is your strength?
I believe a lot in my ability, in me. I have great confidence in myself, that things will come out late early or that I will get things sooner or later.
Its weak point?
There is always something to improve. Better manage everything that is to be an athlete: the emotion, the tension and all that. But I’m already on that and it’s not a novelty. It is following the same process improving certain things.
“Conchita Martínez has been one of the best players and now she is the best coach in the world: Wow!”
Has Conchita Martínez invited you to anything for the best WTA coach award?
I was very excited. When I think about it, if I had to train someone, it must be so hard. As much as I have been a good player, I have to know how to transmit and patience, dedication. Conchi has been one of the best players and now she is the best coach in the world. It’s like wow!
What has it brought you?
Tennis is clear, but they are not such technical things, but more of experience, psychological, how to face moments, an important game, things like that. She has also been able to live it. It is not so much about throwing the ball further to the left, which is also more about being in the Finals and that she has also played them. I did well at this and I think you should do this here. When someone talks to you having lived it in their own person, it changes your perspective, it gives you a certain security.
“You all play very well, to win important tournaments you have to have that X factor”
Does being a champion of the WTA Finals mean respect for your rivals?
One always respects the great players, those who win those important tournaments, because in the end it is a merit, it is very difficult, they have to give a lot of things and you have to have that X factor because they all play very well. All. In those moments of competition, of tension, bring out your personality or your courage and win Grand Slams. It is something to be admired, that extra factor. I hope they respect me.
Who will dominate the circuit in 2022?
It’s tough, there is a lot of competition, each tournament is a little bit that you never know who is going to win. If I’m good with myself, I think I’m a very difficult opponent to beat, but feeling good I’ve also lost because the others also play very well. There is more competitive than ever. There is no longer the domain of Serena or something like that, now it is like each tournament that plays the best that week is going to take it away. Because I also don’t see that anyone is regularly winning titles. Out of thirty tournaments this year, almost all of them are different champions.
“Arantxa is ahead of me, little I am gaining a place between the best ones”
Do you feel like one of the greats of Spanish sport?
Something yes, I do not know. I think Arantxa is ahead of me and Conchita also has thirty-odd titles. There are in things that yes but in others I lack. I think that Arantxa is still ahead in female tennis players, but I think so, that little by little I am gaining a place among the best. There are such great references that everything remains a little … I go there, I am there.
Will there be more tennis when I hang up the racket?
There are years to continue fighting as a player, but I would like to start a second chapter in my life later. I will always be linked to tennis because I am tennis. I don’t know, whatever it is, starting a new chapter, maybe away from tennis.
