Garbine Muguruza was the stronger force that led her to the finals of the Wimbledon Championships. The 23 year old dominated the skills of Magdalena Rybarikova who couldn’t break the Spaniard in a 6-1, 6-1 straight sets victory on Center Court at the All England Tennis Club.
The two met four times in the past with each one of them beating the other evenly. The Slovakian took down Muguruza in a grass court match two years ago but things have clearly changed. The Spaniard has become a dominant force since their last meeting and her presence to reach the finals once more remains a challenge. The world number 87 has held the role of dark horse since she took down Karolina Pliskova in the second round. Her confidence only rose with wins along the way that also took down heavy hitter Coco Vandeweghe. With this being her best run in any grand slam, the 28-year-old hoped to keep it going against the world number 15.
She was already down two games in the first six minutes to Muguruza who had her game well under control while the 28-year-old felt the nerves. She was down 40-0 when a challenge in the third went Rybarikova’s way. She got on the board briefly before an error on the forehand handed the Spaniard another step forward. The control from the 14th seed remained in focus dominating the returns of the Slovakian holding off her comeback to deuce for a second consecutive break.
Despite the tremendous difficulty, Rybarikova attempted the break the Spaniard in the fifth but was again denied a break opportunity. 22 minutes had elapsed putting Muguruza in position for the set which didn’t go in shape of a sweep. It was at that point that the Slovakian laid down winners across court finishing Muguruza off with an ace to avoid the bagel. The 14th seed returned to serve in the seventh where she fired off a set of shots to still hold the set after 30 minutes. She ended the set winning near 70 percent of shots on the first serve and a second serve very close in tow. With less than ten unforced errors and eight winners the Spaniard knew that she had everything under her belt going into the second set.
Another runaway began to take shape for Muguruza who consolidated the final win in the sixth and extended the winning streak to four games after 43 combined minutes of play. It was soon to four games to none in the second as Muguruza inched quickly to her goal of securing a spot in the finals. The fifth saw another moment for the Slovakian she reached deep on her service to be the stronger force. When it came to controlling the court, Muguruza had the leverage to force deuce.
She couldn’t lock down the break point failing on three attempts before the longest game of the match went to Rybarikova after four breaks. While she managed to avoid another bagel in the match, the inevitable began to show its face as Muguruza held serve in the sixth to go all in on the break. She reached triple break to work her way through the game and win it on a 15-shot rally ending the one hour four-minute span on court.
“I think I played very well for sure,” Muguruza said after the match. “It was a tricky match. She’s a very talented player and she was playing very good in the tournament so I stepped out on the court being very confident and everything went well.”
With the swift win, she’ll get the rest of the day and Friday to await her final opponent between Venus Williams or Johanna Konta on Saturday. “I’m going to enjoy it for sure,” she said. “Being in a grand slam final is a great achievement and I definitely want to win no matter who is in front of me and I’ll be looking at their game and it’ll be a great final no matter what.”
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