Garbiñe Muguruza demonstrated this Thursday in Abu Dhabi that the mental strength of ‘Nadalian’ dyes that he has been displaying for some time And the one that she and her coach, Conchita Martínez, spoke about recently in AS, is not a cliché, it is real. Faced with difficult wind conditions and areas of sun and shade at the beginning, the winner of two Grand Slams overcame a bad start to beat Kristina Mladenovic 6-2, 6-4 in 1h: 41 (26 years and 50th in the world). In the development of the match, he wore that attitude so improved that it connects him with the other great figure of national tennis. In the second round she will face the Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich for the first time on Saturday (26 years and 90th).
That said, things did not start well for Garbiñe. Pelín misplaced, hit a couple of rods in that start and gave up his first serve. Then Mladenovic made it 2-0 with some ease against a somewhat tense foe. But the current version of the Spanish one almost always allows us to think about the reaction, sometimes furious. And so it was, blow by blow, Muguruza found the strength, movement and precision to overwhelm the Saint Pol su Mer tennis player and endorsed a devastating 6-0 run to score the first set.
Imperial, the world number 15, also won the first turn of the second round before Mladenovic, in progression, finally stopped bleeding with his serve. The game was ordered and Kiki even enjoyed two occasions to break Muguruza's serve again, who defended himself bravely, a magnificent backhand winner and a couple of good serves. He had to row upstream again on his next serve at 15-40 and this time he didn't pick it up. His rival had greatly improved his performance and was continually encouraged. However, his effort produced a rebound effect, identical to that of the first set, which turned against him. Garbiñe scored the counterbreak and then rallied another 15-40 to get within a game of a triumph that closed brilliantly, after raising a 40-0 to the rest helped by five double faults of his opponent. Thus he took his second firm step of the season after winning the previous day in doubles with Brady as a couple. The Spanish-American duo will face this Friday (not before 08:00, WTA TV) in the second round against the Russians Alexandrova and Sizikova.
Abu Dhabi WTA 500 results.