Sorana Cirstea didn’t have the best day on court at the Wimbledon Championships Saturday. The 27 year old struggled to level up with Garbine Muguruza who dominated from start to finish winning 6-2, 6-2 on Court Two at the All England Club. It was the sixth set that the Spaniard managed to hold to end the first week of play on the grass courts.
Both met earlier this year at the season’s first major where the Spaniard took care of business to get into the fourth round. With the fourth round on the line at Wimbledon, her efforts to get back to the top remained the lone mission. The Romanian was still getting over the stunning moments that happened during her match on Thursday when opponent Bethanie Mattek-Sands suffered a very painful knee injury. Having felt helpless on the court, she knew that she had to brush off the recent memory and try to pull one for her second-round opponent.
Cirstea got the important service hold necessary against Muguruza but the inevitable soon arrived in the second. The Spaniard held her own followed by consolidating a second straight victory. It didn’t take long for the Romanian to realize the pattern taking shape and challenged the world number 15 in the fourth. They went to deuce, going two breaks before Muguruza nailed down the advantage to widen the gap.
Unforced errors were racking up for Cirstea on her forehand that easily gave Muguruza a full pass in the fifth with a triple break. The win was enough for the Spaniard to run her serve hard against the Romanian who was showing real struggles with keeping her returns in form. She found herself on the edge in the seventh but forcing deuce on serve allowed her to stay alive.
Her second win in the set was all that she was allowed to get as Muguruza kept the focus and delivered a set win to her name in 33 minutes. The force of the Spaniard took a beating on the serves of Cirstea who had trouble locking down more points on both sides of the rallies.
The pattern took a similar pace going into the second with the Romanian locking down the all-important hold in the opening game. From there it was Muguruza who dominated the next three to maintain a strong first serve percentage while trying to overtake Cirstea on the winners. Not only did she achieve the success of capping more winners than her opponent but also coasted to another pair of games that led to playing for the match in the seventh.
The nerves were heavy for the Romanian who attempted to implement shots that made it difficult for Muguruza to return on. It was enough to gain her another win but the serve for Muguruza was soon in play to close out the match. Despite some slight adversity, the number 14 seed held the score in her favor to finish off Cirstea in 1 hour and 10 minutes with a 78 percent serve success and good moves near the net with 11 of 14 being scored from the position.
Cirstea had moments of beating the Spaniard but her consistency never got up to speed despite hitting a lot of first serve shots. The unforced errors and returns were the biggest problem in her demise to end the first week. While she prepares for the next tournament, Muguruza’s path gets difficult on Tuesday when she’ll face the winner between Shelby Rogers and world number one Angelique Kerber.
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