This Friday at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow it seemed that Garbiñe Muguruza let himself go in his quarterfinal match against Anett Kontaveit, who won with great ease: double 6-1 in 48 minutes, the fastest defeat in the Spanish career without retiring. The best thing is that the fiasco was not due to any physical problem, simply a bad day at the office against a difficult opponent who is in his prime., although he dominated it 2-1 in the face to face.
Garbiñe saw that the victory was getting very uphill, at the expense of a comeback that at this point in the season and after playing for two hours and 45 minutes Against the Czech Martincova on Wednesday it would have been ill-advised, since her presence in the WTA Finals is practically assured despite the defeat. That would explain his excessive apathy, since he missed many blows from his rival, who has won 19 of his last 21 games, without even making any intention of returning them. The numbers sing: two winners and 23 unforced errors by Garbiñe, by 22 and 10 by the Estonian.
Hours before, the Russian Pavlyuchenkova, one of the tennis players who threatened her classification, fell against the odds against the Czech Vondrousova (6-4 and 6-2), who will be Kontaveit’s rival in the semifinals (the other tie will be played by Alexandrova and Sakkari ) and said goodbye to all his options. Now, Garbiñe has 3,250 points and is sixth in the race, with a 24-point lead over Iga Swiatek, 138 over Paula Badosa and 200 over Jabeur. To lose their position in the top eight they would have to surpass it all three, with a good result at the tournaments in Cluj and Courmayeur next week. The caraqueña is aimed at the first, although it is not certain that she will play it. Who will have to do it there is Badosa, to ensure his pass, because Jabeur will be in the other.
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