Garbine Muguruza had a long night on court at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship early Tuesday morning. After waiting for her match against Catherine Bellis who progressed in the second set to challenge the world number three but lost 6-3 7-5 on Centre Court at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium.
This was a first meeting between the two players with the world number three getting her first start since the Doha final three days ago. Despite missing out on a title, the Spaniard was prepared to make her fourth appearance hoping to return to best her semifinal finish in 2015. The young American took care of business against Elise Mertens to hold her to three games each. She would try to use the same stance of aggression to challenge Muguruza with more time on the hard courts of Dubai.
The two got a late start to their match that took them into the twilight of Thursday morning with the Spaniard getting the match started. After breaking the second seed, the American faced a lot of powerful hitting from Muguruza who grew open a double break before taking a 4-1 lead in the set. The sixth game was her second moment of battling the Spaniard to play deuce on her service. They went deep playing through five breaks before Bellis managed to hang on saving four break points.
She put worry into the eyes of Muguruza when she pulled off another game sitting down 2-5 but as the 23-year-old got the ball, she put the set to bed in 42 minutes. Muguruza had a 73 percent first serve with 10 winners and three aces. Despite racking up nearly two dozen errors against Bellis, she saw many of them come from the 18-year-old who had a lot of pep in her response to rallies.
She lost her opening serve in the second set but fought to get one herself in the second playing a 30-shot rally to win the first point. Despite the response, she could not find a way to win the break as Muguruza opened the gap on her. Bellis ended her opponent’s three game winning streak before being broken in the fifth by Muguruza who was on pace to end her night.
A second win from Bellis added more time to the match trying to pull off a fight to extend her chance to play a third. The teen had a winning streak going for herself playing well against Muguruza to pressure her to falter. The streak was soon four where the victory gave Bellis the 5-4 lead with energy dwindling away from the Spaniard. It was up to Muguruza as she served to stay in the set smashing her sixth ace to start. She stabilized her offense to force Bellis into a 5 all tie to play on.
The 23-year-old made the first strike to stand at 6-5 with the chance to serve for the match and end her night before 2 a.m. It was meant to be for the second seed as she got the victory after 1 hour and 41 minutes.
“It’s definitely very late but I’m glad that I won,” Muguruza said after the match. “I stayed focused all the time even though she came back playing much better in the second set. I tried to stay calm and wait until the last moment to close it up.” She’ll face Caroline Garcia for the second time in a week with the hope that she can rest up for it. “We had a very tough match and I’m expecting another one from her.”
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