Garbiñe Muguruza has turned up in Melbourne no longer as an underdog but a serious contender, and with all of the added pressure which that entails. The Spaniard, who hitherto could expect to surge through the draw unnoticed is now firmly in the spotlight as her debut at the 2016 Australian Open took place on the Rod Laver Arena against Anett Kontaveit. And where better to send out her intentions to the rest of the field?
“There’s no formula to get away from it and no one can show you how to deal with it. Each person handles it as they can”, said the world number three with regards to that pressure leading into the event. Muguruza showed no signs of suffering from jitters or, indeed, from the injury that forced her to retire in Brisbane. “I had time to recover and I hope to be as fit as possible”.
The task wasn’t easy on paper. Kontaveit was a junior semifinalist at the Australian Open in 2013 and was making her first main draw appearance but a remarkable run to the fourth round of last year’s US Open from qualifying helped the young Estonian climb to a well-earned ranking of 85.
On the contrary to her opponent, Kontaveit did seem to feel the pressure with a forgettable opening service game which included a couple of double faults. After that it was the Muguruza show. 4-0 up after only 14 minutes with a tremendous combination of big serving, powerful groundstrokes and solid net-play.
After 23 minutes the first set was in the bag 6-0 as Muguruza took her first set point, displaying her utter domination with a smash at the net that was followed by a drop volley, combining power and finesse.
Kontaveit put up more of a fight in the second set and held her opening service game to the unanimous applause of the Rod Laver Arena. It wouldn’t last long however as Muguruza steamrolled to a clean break of serve at 1-1. The Estonian did take some spirit from some feisty holds from then on, but she never had a sniff when her opponent was firing bombs down from the other end and the Spaniard took the match 6-0, 6-4, on the back of 22 winners and just 10 unforced errors with a performance that will have caught the attention of more than one player in the dressing room.
