Muguruza falls in Adelaide and Davidovich debuts with victory

The 2023 season has not started in an ideal way for Garbiñe Muguruza. If last week the Spanish tennis player gave in to Bianca Andreescu in a match in which she started winning, today Muguruza has stood up but could not with the Swiss Belinda Bencic, current Olympic champion, who beat him in the first round of the Adelaide International 2 6-3 and 6-4 in one hour and 20 minutes.

The game could have been uphill for Muguruza from the beginning, since Bencic managed to break the Spaniard’s serve on her first serve to consolidate the break and lead 3-0. An advantage that the Swiss managed to keep after being very firm with his serve (he achieved 10 direct aces and won 90% of points with his first serve in the match) to close the set 6-3 the first time he could.

In the second set the same trend prevailed, with both players taking their services forward without granting themselves break options until In the ninth game, Bencic again broke Muguruza’s serve for the second time he was able to do so in the match to make it 5-4. A break that, in the end, would be definitive, since the Swiss did not fail with her serve to close the set and the match 6-4.

In this way, Muguruza sees how her last test prior to the Australian Open ends early, the first Grand Slam of the year, where the Spanish tennis player could face difficult rivals almost from the beginning due to her position in the ranking, since the Spanish ranks 58. An Australian Open in which Muguruza will try to reverse once and for all the bad streak of results that he has been dragging on in recent months and that caused him to leave the Top-10.

Davidovich can with Nakashima in Adelaide

Who did manage to pass the round in Adelaide was Alexander Davidovich. The tennis player from Malaga started his 2023 season with a victory against the American Brandon Nakashima 6-2, 7-6 (3) after an hour and 35 minutes of the game.

The match started a Davidovich who managed to break Nakashima’s serve in the third game of the first set to consolidate it, although not without trouble, since in the following game Davidovich saved up to three break balls. A break that allowed the man from Malaga to take an advantage that he would further expand in the seventh game with another break to get to 5-2 before closing the set with his serve 6-2.

In the second set, both Davidovich and Nakashima were very solid with their serve (the man from Malaga won 82% of points with his first serve) and there was only one break ball for Nakashima that Davidovich managed to save in the sixth game. with this equality the sleeve went to a tie-break, where Davidovich managed to break Nakashima’s serve twice to close the set and the match on the second match point that he had 7-6 (7-3 in the tiebreaker). In the second round Davidovich will face the winner of the match between the Spanish Albert Ramos and the Australian John Millman in a match in which ‘Foki’ wants to continue showing good form before the Australian Open.