Australian Open: Garbie Muguruza is reborn with a stimulating win

The victory against Svitolina, fifth favorite, and his qualification for the round of 16 are a significant boost in the new open stage with Conchita Martnez as coach

Always reluctant to look in his own mirror, Garbie again avoided analogies with the best Garbie, the champion of Roland Garros in 2016, the winner in Wimbledon a year later, the tennis player who passed, even if fleetingly, for the number 1 in the world at the end of that same summer, while playing the US Open. I don't usually compare myself to the past, I don't even remember how my level was in Wimbledon. Many things have happened. I don't want to think about how I played two years ago or anything like that, he said after hitting Elina Svitolina, 6-1 and 6-2 and performing in the fourth round of the Australian Open, where Kiki Bertens awaits him on Monday.

The victory has enormous value for Muguruza, which leaves behind a rival with whom he had fallen in his last five games, seeded number five in the first big of the course And he does it conclusively, after not walking away from the elimination against Shelby Rogers, in his debut.

Semifinalist in Shenzhen, where he fell to Ekaterina Alexandrova in his first tournament with Conchita Martnez back on his bench and forced to retire before playing the quarterfinals against Veronika Kudermetova in Hobart, as a result of a viral infection, Garbie appeared in Melbourne without meeting fully recovered. It is definitely a good sign for me when I don't feel well and manage to win games and compete. Even if you don't feel well, there is always a possibility. You just have to find your way. I am satisfied with my fighting spirit and I am able to accept many difficult situations, he added.

Renewed equipment

At 26, the Hispanic-Venezuelan faces an important course in a race that went through critical moments in 2019. I decided to do without Sam Sumyk, his coach since September since 2015, as a result of his defeat in the first round of Wimbledon. The incorporation since the end of last November of Conchita Martnez, which already provisionally replaced Sumyk due to the paternity leave of this in the successful Wimbledon of 2017 and joined the team to work provisionally with the French technician on the tour American spring, months later, is not the only novelty in a team that has a new physical trainer, the Argentine Santiago de Martino, and a new physiotherapist, the German Cathrin Junker.

He collapsed to the 32nd position of the rnking after his disappointing season, Garbie tries to gain competitiveness in a circuit that young players, such as Bianca Andreescu, winner of the last US Open and absent in Melbourne, join with great push for lesin, Naomi Osaka, at 22 years old already with two titles of the Grand Slam, or the amazing Coco Gauff, who still with 15 years has eliminated the Japanese, defender of the cup.

Muruguza has won Bertens, ninth favorite, in his last showdown, last year in the eighth round of Indian Wells: 5-7, 6-1 and 6-4. The Dutch won a year before again in the round of 16, in Sydney, also on the hard track, 6-3 and 7-6 (6), and lost due to non-attendance that season, in the same Australian tournament.