Psychologist, Nadal’s nutritionist and solid ‘Team Mugu’

Garbiñe Muguruza appeared like lightning in 2015, at the age of 21, to stand in the Wimbledon final against Serena Williams and announce that it was a rising sun for tennis … After climbing to the top of the roller coaster with his triumphs at Roland Garros 2016 and Wimbledon 2017, he fell to the ground with two bad seasons. The wagon went up and down aimlessly as its talent was lost. until in 2020 he put himself in the hands of Conchita Martínez, who in two seasons has managed to set up a team around him with which he has found stability again.

“We want to do something great,” announced the former tennis player at the beginning of the year in an interview with AS. 1994 Wimbledon champion, she knows how to listen. “I needed a different kind of work, calmer. Now I lead it more than before because I have vision and experience, and I know how to manage things. As Conchita was a player, there are times when we don’t have to talk, it’s okay with a gesture or a look, “says a Garbiñe much more zen at 28 years old.

Its strong core, in addition to Conchita, also speaks Spanish, which has underpinned the good ‘feeling’ in the group. They are the Argentines Adriana Forti and Santiago de Martino. She previously worked with Anabel Medina or Vivi Ruano as a physiotherapist. He, for the Davis team of Ecuador as a physical trainer. Martino started two years ago with Conchita. “She has provided very different training sessions, with a lot of dynamism on court and improvement in lateral movements in a big player (1.82)”, count in their environment. They are the people who have occupied the Caracas box these days, in addition to Cecilia Casla, its press officer and representative in Spain (internationally it belongs to IMG), and the tennis player’s ‘boy’, Arthur Borges.

A psychologist joined that gear a year and a half ago to work with a mind that was becoming more cloudy than was convenient. And one nutritionist, Gemma Bes, who collaborates with Rafa Nadal in his academy in Manacor. “He takes care of himself much more, although it is not an obsession”, they say of Muguruza’s eating habits, which only “soft drinks and fast foods” are prohibited and, out of competition, they are not deprived. He likes to eat.

Muguruza, who at the end of 2019 climbed almost 6,000 meters of Kilimanjaro (“I wanted to get out of my comfort zone,” he said), happened in November 2020, just before putting himself under Conchita’s orders, a few days with the special operations groups of the Civil Guard (cave diving, self defense, abseiling from an aircraft …). Strong emotions that helped him face the year of his recovery. “Having a bad time increases my capacity for suffering,” he justified it then. At the WTA Finals, she showed it.