France's Mladenovic, Muguruza's first rival of the year

Garbiñe Muguruza will debut the 2021 season against the French Kristina Mladeonovic (27 years and 50th in the world) in the first round of the Abu Dhabi WTA 500, which begins on Wednesday Without an audience and in sessions that will start at 07:00 Spanish time and that can be followed on DAZN and WTA TV. It will be Garbiñe's fourth match against the French player, who in recent years has been more successful in doubles, along with Hungarian Timea Babos (together they have won four Grand Slams), than in singles. The particular balance favors Mladenovic 2-1.

On the way to Muguruza, fifth seeded, the Belarusian Sasnovich would be ranked in the second round, the Greek Sakkari in the second round, the American Kenin, first favorite, in the quarterfinals and another Belarusian, Sabalenka, in the semifinals before a hypothetical final against the Ukrainian Svitolina, the number two of the event. A tough frame, like almost everyone on a very even WTA tour. “I'm back and looking forward to all the excitement of being in a new tournament and a new season. I feel motivated and happy to be part of all this,” Muguruza said at a press conference. “I am not worried about the times, in this return to normality in tennis, since everyone is doing a great job in the start-up. A lot of attention is paid to the little details like staying in the hotel and training with the same colleagues, etc … “, he explained.

Sara Sorribes and Paula Badosa, the other two Spaniards who are already in the main draw, will face Argentina's Nadia Podoroska, one of the great revelations of Roland Garros, and Latvian Anastasija Sevastova. Podoroska, 23 years old and who trains in Alicante (he rallied there a few years ago with the Australian Alex de Miñaur), no longer needs to go through the previous ones after climbing many places in the ranking (from 131 to 47) for his great performance in Paris, where she reached the semifinals and was overtaken by the champion, 19-year-old Polish Iga Swiatek. “I don't have a specific goal in terms of ranking for next season. My dream is to be number one,” says Nadia, who shared training with Muguruza and Russia's Daria Kasatkina on Monday. Sorribes, Podoroska and Badosa are on the side of Svitolina and Czech Karolina Pliskova.

In the preview, which begins this Tuesday, Irene Burillo and Andrea Lázaro compete. The 23rd and 308th Aragonese in the world will meet the French Amandine Hesse (27th and 201st) and the 26th and 272nd from Barcelona, ​​with the Czech Lucie Hradecka (35th and 495th).