Garbine Muguruza stormed to success at the US Open Wednesday night. The world number three ran through game after game to break her curse of second round upsets and won against Ying Ying Duan in a 6-4, 6-0 win on Grandstand Court at the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center. It was the best finish of a second round by the third seed that allowed her to extend her tournament for the first time.
The Spaniard had a quick first round on Monday and looked to keep the pace against the Chinese athlete she had never faced. Duan took down American Claire Liu in straight sets as well but knew that facing a player of very high talents would take a lot more out of herself to build together something big. Muguruza hasn’t dropped a set in three matches and carried a six-match winning streak along for what she hoped to be a lengthy journey.
She started out smoothly with a hold of serve after Duan got her moment in on court. The Chinese star set the pace with the Spaniard keeping her serve on lock in the third to make a statement while she could. It went on through the next four games where it was Muguruza who had to match the moves of Duan each time.
It went all the way to eight games with Muguruza putting things into another gear for her only chance to break ahead. It was on the return side of the ball in game nine that Muguruza made her move countering the serve of Duan to cap a 5-4 hold to serve for the set. The third seed had two set points but watched them erase with help from Duan on her return game. They went to deuce with Muguruza attempting five times before she got it closed out in 44 minutes. The errors racked up late for the world number three but being able to keep up the first serve and returns helped out against the 28-year-old who showed she could run with the best.
The second set started with Muguruza breaking Duan followed by two more wins that gave the Spaniard a big double break. The 3-0 lead for the third seed broke apart her opponent’s game which was full of errors showing little control. It quickly turned into a runaway as Muguruza earned a triple break that pressured the Chinese star to act quickly. She couldn’t contain the small lead as Muguruza was charging to victory with no sign of issues. With the bagel in view, Muguruza set up triple match point winning on an ace to conclude the 1 hour and six-minute pursuit to the third round.
Being in completely new territory would be strange for the Spaniard but in Friday’s matchup against Magdalena Rybarikova, Muguruza wouldn’t change any of her preparations with her success getting her further than ever.
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