Garbine Muguruza got her revenge and guarantee into the third round of the French Open Wednesday. The fourth seed had struggles through the first two sets before bringing it all together against Anett Kontaveit winning 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2 on Court Philippe Chatrier on the grounds of Roland Garros in Paris. The defending champion saw her ups and downs but reached the ultimate goal of being the stronger of the two.
The 22-year-old Estonian already had a clay court win over the defending French Open champion leveling the series with a late three set victory in Stuttgart. Anticipating further challenges, Kontaveit took care of Monica Niculescu in the opening round to win in straight sets. The Spaniard’s game looked well enough to handle the next obstacle in her quest to defend the championship holding back the run from Francesca Schiavone to get to the second round. With her wanting to level the playing field on the clay court surface, she also wanted to avenge the loss from late April and take the next step.
It turned out to be more difficult than she imagined as things took a dramatic turn in the third. After each won on their opening serves, Kontaveit sped away with control and never let off. She went on a four game winning streak before the Spaniard had a chance to respond. It was an action that gave her a two game winning streak trying desperate to comeback from such a large deficit.
She gained back most of the ground lost and sat a game down going into the tenth against Kontaveit. With the ball in hand, Muguruza went for the crucial tie while the Estonian hoped to secure the set. Troubles with her game were becoming more apparent than ever as she couldn’t find a way to capture the break and end things in the first. Instead, the players went deeper with Kontaveit once again getting out front but unable to lock down the break.
Muguruza pushed them to the brink of a tiebreaker where the Estonian once again set the bar. She took a 4-0 run before Muguruza recorded a point but still had Kontaveit breathing down her neck. She inched closer to the seventh point getting a third chance at set point gaining the win that ended the battle after 48 minutes. Kontaveit had the edge in what played out as an even strength set but her earlier dominance was the factor of her pressuring Muguruza
She kept the pace in her favor taking the opening break of the set before pushing herself to win the love service with an ace right on the center line. Experiencing the start of Kontaveit trying to run away with the set, Muguruza did work to hold serve and get on the board in kind. After allowing the defending champion to get a win, Kontaveit went back to extending her lead in fourth maintaining a two game gap. Muguruza had other intentions and went for the break in the sixth threatening to change the tide of her opponent’s grasp. The players took the game to deuce where it was the Muguruza coming out on top to level herself for the first time.
The push led to the set becoming a major competition as neither wanted to give the other room for leverage. The seventh game went to deuce as well with two breaks taking place before the lead change went in favor of the fourth seed. With the win on serve, it put pressure on the two to stay tight on their offense. Kontaveit had the mission to get out front but as Muguruza reached a chance to play for a tie in the set, it added nerves to the Estonian on whether she could force the Spaniard into a draw.
Muguruza didn’t let that happen as she took the break that sent the match to the distance in order to make her stance to make it into the third round. It took 46 minutes to determine a winner but the toll that Kontaveit’s first serve too indicated her struggles to keep up with the fourth seed.
With both starting fresh, the race to see who would lead was all that mattered in their quest for victory. They opened the third staying on serve through the first two, with Muguruza setting the bar for Kontaveit to match. Her break arrived in the sixth where she was unable to defend against Muguruza’s challenging returns that became too much to handle. The Spaniard carried a two game lead with the match close at hand.
Not wanting to let up, Muguruza put her serve to good use and smashed out a fifth win that made the challenge that much greater for Kontaveit to stay in it. Her serve wasn’t quite together to challenge Muguruza as her returns trounced Kontaveit with a double match point to score one final winner ending the two hour and eight minute come from behind win. Muguruza’s first serve was the basis for her victory as the unforced errors, double faults and a struggling second serve had her in trouble at times. The factors would have to be ironed on before Friday’s match against Yulia Putintseva.
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