Garbine Muguruza was clear to the fourth round with a solid finish on day six at the French Open. The defending champion took care of Yulia Putintseva in straight sets winning 7-5, 6-2 on Court Philippe Chatrier on the grounds of Roland Garros. The Spaniard conducted the second set to go one way and secure a place in the round of 16 this weekend.
The two met late in the season last year where a straight sets win went in favor of the Spaniard with a tight ending to the second set. While that was on a different surface, it left the door open for the 22-year-old to beat the defending champion on clay. She already had a good start defeating two players but this became her first big challenge of the tournament to date. The world number five had a challenge Wednesday against Anett Kontaveit but finished ahead in the last set to get near the halfway point. She hoped for another easy pass but at grand slams, they never came easy.
She witnessed proof of that as she got the ball rolling with a break of Putintseva that only led to herself getting broken as well. The tenacious skills from the Kazak allowed her to open the gap against Muguruza who was already recording more unforced errors than her opponent. She saw her problems becoming too much of an issue and made the corrections in her game to get back to what she does best.
From the fifth game on, it was Muguruza who put her offense to good use and dominated the Kazak. She went on to take the next four threatening in the ninth to win the set. The 22-year-old stopped the complete comeback by Muguruza putting a chance to force the set onward to get a chance at leading the match. She had two break points on the Spaniard but watched them all be erased by the fourth seed who wanted to get out front and make a statement. It was an uphill battle for her as four breaks elapsed with Putintseva winning the key game that sent the set deeper.
Putintseva was first to act putting the pressure on the defending champion to level back one last time. It was her strength on the first serve that got her out of danger and the ability to dominate in the 12th that ultimately gave her the win after 52 minutes. Muguruza didn’t have a clean set nearly matching her unforced errors to winners ration. Her second serve fared slightly better than Putintseva’s to stand out in the match.
After winning her fifth game in a row, Muguruza had a strong chance to end to the match. She saw herself taking control over Putintseva even after handing her two wins that ultimately gave her a grip of things after the fifth. The Spaniard marched her way through the opposition to rush through to the set victory that took her 45 minutes to complete. An improvement to both sides of her game allowed the fourth seed to ease through to her ultimate goal of success. She’ll await the winner between Samantha Stosur and French powerhouse Kristina Mladenovic on Sunday.
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